Everything about Arborvitae totally explained
Thuja (pronounced
"thoo-ya" or "
thoo-ja") is a genus of
coniferous
trees in the
Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to
North America and three native to eastern
Asia.
They are commonly known as
arborvitae (from
Latin for
tree of life) or
thujas; several species are widely known as
cedar but because they're not true
cedars (
Cedrus) it has been recommended to call them redcedars or whitecedars.
They are
evergreen trees growing to 10–60 m tall, with stringy-textured reddish-brown
bark. The shoots are flat, with side shoots only in a single plane. The leaves are scale-like 1–10 mm long, except young seedlings in their first year, which have needle-like leaves. The scale leaves are arranged in alternating decussate pairs in four rows along the twigs. The male cones are small, inconspicuous, and are located at the tips of the twigs. The female
cones start out similarly inconspicuous, but grow to about 1-2 cm long at maturity when 6–8 months old; they've 6-12 overlapping, thin, leathery scales, each scale bearing 1–2 small
seeds with a pair of narrow lateral wings.
A
hybrid between
T. standishi and
T. plicata has been named as the
cultivar Thuja 'Green Giant'.
Another very distinct and only distantly related species, formerly treated as
Thuja orientalis, is now treated in a genus of its own, as
Platycladus orientalis. The closest relatives of
Thuja are
Thujopsis dolabrata, distinct in its thicker foliage and stouter cones, and
Tetraclinis articulata, distinct in its quadrangular foliage (not flattened) and cones with four thick, woody scales.
Ecology
Thuja species are used as food plants by the
larvae of some
Lepidoptera species including
Autumnal Moth,
The Engrailed and
Juniper Pug. The foliage is also readily eaten by
deer, and where deer population density is high, can adversely affect the growth of young trees and the establishment of seedlings.
Uses
They are widely grown as
ornamental trees, and extensively used for
hedges. A number of cultivars are grown and used in landscapes. The cultivar 'Green Giant' is popular as a very vigorous hedging plant, growing up to 80 cm/year when young.
The
wood is light, soft and aromatic. It can be easily split and resists decay. The wood has been used for many applications from making chests that repel moths to shingles. Thuja poles are also often used to make fence posts and rails. The wood of
Thuja plicata is commonly used for
guitar soundboards.
Oil of thuja contains the terpene
thujone which has been studied for its
GABA receptor antagonistic, with potentially lethal properties.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Arborvitae'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://thuja.totallyexplained.com">Thuja Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
