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Botanical Name: Cedrus atlantica (Glauca Group)

Common Name: Blue Atlas Cedar
Nativity: Morocco/Algeria
Locations: CNE, CSE, KN

Notable Feature: The needles of those in the Glauca Group are noticeably blue especially when seen against a background of snow.  

Habit: Loosely pyramidal when young with long spreading branches, these large, evergreen conifers, which are 40 feet to over 100 feet tall and up to 45 feet wide, become more flat-topped with age.

Flower: Monoecious -- male and female flowers appear in separate, cone-like structures on the same tree in spring.  In autumn the males send clouds of yellow pollen up to the females in higher parts of the tree.

Fruit: The female cones (2 to 4” long and 2” wide) sit upright on the higher branches, are thick and purplish, and ripen in the fall after two years.

Foliage: Tufted clusters of bluish green to silvery blue needles (to 1” long) curve upward.  

Interesting Fact: These large trees, native to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, are often grown as bonsai.

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