Red cedars stand out on prairie
By PAUL JANTZEN
Contributing writer
Whether against a background of the green prairie grasses of spring, or the copper-hued grasses of autumn, or the white snows of winter, the dark green, eastern red cedars stand out from the landscape in the Kansas prairie.
The eastern red cedar is native to much of the eastern half of the United States. It is common in most of Kansas, especially on the limestone hills of east central counties and the gypsum hills in south central areas. It is often cone-shaped and ranging to 25 meters in height. It belongs to the cypress family and is not a pine or true cedar.
The red cedar's simple ever-green leaves are arranged oppositely on the twig and are of two types. Those on young fast-growing twigs are 6-12 mm long, sharply pointed, and spreading out from the twig. Leaves on older twigs are only 1.5 mm long, more crowded, and pressed against the twig. An oval gland appears on the side of the leaf opposite that facing the twig.
While the red cedar's sapwood is white, its heartwood is red and emits a fragrant aroma that repels moths. The main stems are durable and used as fence posts or sawed into lumber. The moth-repellent lumber is made into chests and closet linings as well as flooring and pencils. The oil of its wood is distilled for use in soaps, perfumes, and room deodorants.
The reproductive cycle in red cedars is completed in one year. Male and female cones appear, on separate trees, by April. In September, the 6-7 mm waxy blue, globular female cone matures, its fused scales containing 1-3 seeds. When the berry-like cedar cones are eaten by birds, the seeds are left, undigested, in droppings. This effective means of seed dispersal leads many range managers to use cutting and burning to control the invasion of cedars into overgrazed grasslands.
Various species of wildlife find red cedars of value. Their twigs and foliage are eaten by deer. But the cedar's chief attraction is its cones. They provide from one-fourth to one-half the diet of cedar waxwings and lesser quantities for numerous other birds and mammals. I have seen a flock of wintering robins in south-central Kansas feasting on cedar "berries" in the shelter of the cedar grove of an abandoned farmstead along French Creek. Coyotes and opossums also include the "berries" in their diets.
Red cedars also provide wildlife protection and nesting cover. These trees are favorite nesting sites for chipping sparrows, song sparrows, robins, and mocking birds. Juncos and various sparrows use the dense foliage as winter roosting cover.
Native Americans, according to information gathered through interviews by Melvin Gilmore before 1914, used red cedar for both medicinal and religious purposes. Some Indian nations boiled the leaves and "berries" together, using the preparation internally for coughs of their horses as well as their own. In treatment of head colds, they enveloped their head and smoldering cedar twigs in a blanket and inhaled the smoke. Cedar boughs were placed on teepee poles to ward off lightning. Its twigs were used on the hot stones of the vapor bath in purification rites.
The orange, tentacled spheres often found in red cedars after spring rains are one stage in the life cycle of cedar-apple rust. This fungus survives the winter in red cedar twigs while apple trees have no leaves. During the summer, the fungus drives nutrients from the apple (or hawthorn) tree, damaging leaves and causing spotty, stunted fruits. From mid-summer into fall, spores from the apple infest the twigs of red cedar. The resulting gall swells, during warm rainy spring nights, to nearly the size of a golf ball. This orange sphere then explodes to produce the numerous jelly-like tentacles which produce spores. Those air-borne spores that alight on apple trees continue their parasitic lifestyle, digesting and absorbing nutrients from the tissues of apple leaves and fruits. For this reason, some states prohibit the planting of red cedars near large apple orchards.
Fortunately, certain varieties of eastern red cedar resistant to the fungus are now available. The winter infection rarely jeopardizes the health of the red cedar.
With the infrequency of prairie fires and the practice of overgrazing, we will probably continue to see red cedars in our Midwest prairies for a long time.
