Atlas Cedar

Trees to 30 m tall; trunk to 1.5 m d.b.h.; crown pyramidal when young; branchlets horizontal or tilted upward distally; branchlets many 2-ranked, opposite or alternate, usually not pendulous, pale yellow-brown, pubescent in 1st year, thereafter dark gray; winter buds conical. Leaves on short branchlets in apparent fascicles of 19-28, dark green, linear, ± quadrangular in cross section, 15-35 cm × ca. 1 mm, stomatal lines 2-5 along both surfaces, apex acuminate. Seed cones tinged purple before fertilization, pale brown at maturity, ovoid-columnar to columnar, ca. 7 × 4 cm. Seed scales flabellate or obtriangular, ca. 3.5 mm wide. Seeds ± triangular, ca. 1.2 cm; wing cuneate, 1.3-1.5 cm.

Cultivated as an ornamental. Jiangsu (Nanjing Shi) [native to NW Africa (Algeria, Morocco)]

Pinus atlantica Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 137. 1847; Cedrus libani A. Richard subsp. atlantica (Endlicher) Battandier & Trabut; C. libani var. atlantica (Endlicher) J. D. Hooker.