Plant
Cedar of Lebanon
Cedrus libani
Also known as: Cedrus libani, Lebanon cedar
A large evergreen coniferous tree native to the mountains of Lebanon, Syria, and southern Turkey — one of the most heavily symbolic trees in the eastern Mediterranean cultural complex. Referenced more than 70 times in the Hebrew Bible; the timber of choice for the Jerusalem Temple, Phoenician shipbuilding, and Egyptian royal furniture. Centered on the Lebanese flag and the country's broader national identity. Once forming vast forests across the Lebanese mountains, the cedar has been so extensively logged across 5,000+ years that only small remnant stands now survive — the most famous being the Cedars of God (*Horsh Arz el-Rab*) at Bsharri, where some individual trees are 1,000+ years old.
Scientific
Cedrus libani (family Pinaceae) is one of four “true cedars” in the genus Cedrus. The species reaches 40+ meters with massive horizontal-branched crowns at maturity. Wood is fragrant, durable, and rot-resistant — the chemical basis for the species’ historical primacy as construction timber.
The other true cedars are Cedrus atlantica (Atlas Mountains of Morocco), Cedrus brevifolia (Cyprus), and Cedrus deodara (the Himalayan deodar). The “[[eastern-red-cedar|red cedar]]” of North America (Juniperus virginiana) and “Western [[eastern-red-cedar|red cedar]]” (Thuja plicata) are unrelated species in entirely different genera that share the common name due to similarly fragrant aromatic wood.
Cultural and historical
The Cedars of Lebanon may be the single most-named tree in any human cultural tradition. Referenced ~70 times in the Hebrew Bible; specifically named as the timber of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem; the Phoenicians built their ocean-going ships of cedar; the Egyptian pharaohs used cedar for royal sarcophagi and barques.
The Lebanese flag bears a green cedar at center — the only major national flag featuring a specific tree species. The species is the national emblem of Lebanon.
Once vast Mediterranean cedar forests covered the Lebanese mountains; some 5,000 years of continuous logging — for Solomon’s Temple, for Phoenician ships, for Roman buildings, for Ottoman railway ties — has reduced the forests to small remnant stands. The Cedars of God grove at Bsharri preserves some of the last large old-growth trees; several individuals are estimated at 1,000–2,000 years old.
The species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Climate change is now an additional pressure — warming temperatures and shifting precipitation in the Lebanese mountains threaten remaining stands.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[spruce]] · [[pine]] · [[monkey-puzzle]] · [[larch]] · [[kauri]] · [[fir]]
- Produces: [[firewood]]
- Member of: [[plants]]
Sources
- Wikipedia — Cedrus libani
- IUCN Red List
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].
What links here, and how
Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.
Cultural
shares approach with
- Cloudberry Plant-as-national-symbol kin — cedar to Lebanon what cloudberry is to Finland; both species are foundational iconography for the nation in question.
- Juniper auto-linked from body mention
General
shares approach with
- Fir auto-linked via shared tag: conifer
3 inbound links · 8 outbound