Yellow cedar

I was going to post pictures of fishes, or other interesting stuff seen while kayaking, but I am starting to run out of steam for that, so here are some pictures of one of my favorite trees: the yellow cedar Chamaecyparis nootkatensis. By the way, it's not at all a cedar in the taxonomic sense, so don't be surprised when you see a cypress-type tree.

I am somewhat part of a totem pole carving project, which aims to carve and install poles for the university building. Totem poles are generally carved out of red cedar, which only grow south of here. Their wood is much softer, lighter, and possibly a little more durable.


This is the master carver Tommy Joseph, sawing part of that same tree, with some future poles in the background (and also chunks of a future US forestry service cabin).


Yellow cedar is a very impervious tree, mainly thanks to some toxins that take decades to leach out of the wood fibers. However, it still gets attacked from time to time.


The species is wind-pollinated. In this photo, it is easy to observe the fruit, and the male flowers.


Female flowers are much less common, which makes sense in light of the mechanism of pollination, and the relation of genetic gain to energy investment in male flowers, versus female flowers (which are the little, terminal blue ones).


And a higher-altitude specimen, which has yet to flower this year although it is clearly mature.


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