Cedrus atlantica cv.

Description:

2013-01-12 Vienna, district III., Schweizergarten, cultivars - Excursion Fischer (198 msm Quadrant 7864/1).German name: Atlas-ZederNative of Northern Africa, commonly cultivated.Cedars excellently show a type of 'leaf' = needle growth intermediary between spruce and fir on the one hand and pine on the other one:Needle growth is different on dwarf shoots of limited growth (German: Kurztrieb) and shoots of unlimited growth (German: Langtrieb).Spruce and fir trees grow needles on the latter while pines do not - even though it seems they do: what does look like needles on shoots of unlimited growth rather are extremely short dwarf shoots sprouting only a limited number of needles (between 2 and 5 depending on species), and pine dwarf shoots do not produce any needles after the first year of growth - when they drop needles (after 2 or more years) they remain "dead". So even though it looks like pines would loose needles on shoots of unlimited growth this is not the case - rather, only the dwarf shoots loose them, while the former never grew any in the first place.Cedars now are intermediary, as said above: they do produce needles on shoots of unlimited growth, but they also do produce dwarf shoots like pines do - only that Cedar dwarf shoots keep on growing (very slowly so), and they keep producing new needles. Here in this photo you can see some of those dwarf shoots, despite them being so short they're still several years old - and you can also see needles growing between them, being rooted in the main shoot of unlimited growth (see remarks).