- Botanical name
- Calocedrus decurrens
- Type
- Native evergreen conifer
- Size in a landscape
- About 70 feet tall and 25 feet wide (UNR Extension)
- Foliage
- Flat sprays of scale-like leaves
- Bark
- Reddish-brown and fibrous, furrowed with age
- Hardiness
- Zones 6b to 7b across the service area (USDA 2023 map)
People often take incense cedar for a juniper or an arborvitae, until they see the size of an old tree. It is a tree for lots with room, not a hedge.
How do you identify incense cedar?
The foliage is the clue. Branchlets are flat, with tiny scale-like leaves pressed against the stem in four rows, and they hang in fan-like sprays. The crown is narrow and columnar when young. Bark is reddish-brown, thick, and splits into long, stringy ridges. Cones are small and open into a shape like a duck's bill.
- Flat, fan-like sprays of scale-like leaves
- Narrow, column-shaped crown
- Reddish, stringy, furrowed bark
- Small, bill-shaped open cones
Where does it grow in the service area?
University of Nevada Extension lists incense-cedar as an adapted tree for high-desert Great Basin landscapes, at an expected size of about 70 feet tall by 25 feet wide, and notes those landscapes lie between about 4,000 and 6,000 feet in zones 6 and 7. It is native to the Sierra, so it does better on the Sierra side: Tahoe-basin yards, the Carson Range slopes and the foothills of Washoe Valley (about 5,100 feet), with planted trees on the valley floors of Carson City (4,700 feet) and Reno (4,500 feet) that need regular deep watering. The nearest NOAA stations record about 7 to 9 inches of precipitation a year at those valley elevations.
What goes wrong with incense cedar here?
A dry year shows first as brown, thinning foliage inside the crown and at the lower branches. Old trees can carry decay in the trunk, and trees on shallow, rocky soil can be uprooted in a wind. Snow loads bend the narrow crown and can break tops; see storm and snow-load breakage.
Fire is the larger issue near a house. University of Nevada Extension warns that any plant can burn if it is not kept watered and free of dead material, and that evergreen woody plants are among the most combustible and should be at least 30 feet from the home. A cedar against a wall, or a row planted as a screen, is a fuel line. See defensible space and fire mitigation.
Pruning timing and the right call
Dead branches can come off at any time. Otherwise, conifers are usually pruned in early spring and summer. The useful cuts on a cedar are dead wood inside the crown, low limbs and branches rubbing a roof. Cutting into bare wood does not regrow, so heavy shearing leaves permanent holes.
Removal is the usual answer for a dead tree, a tree that has become too tall for the lot, or one with soft or hollow wood, a fresh lean or lifted roots. A certified arborist assesses the tree on a free estimate. See tree removal and tree trimming and pruning. For firewood or chips, call the office.
Sources
- University of Nevada Cooperative Extension: Gardening Guide for High-Desert Urban Landscapes of Great Basin Regions in Nevada and Utah (SP-13-09) (read October 17, 2026)
- USDA Agricultural Research Service: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (PRISM, Oregon State University) (read October 17, 2026)
- NOAA NCEI: U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020 (read October 17, 2026)