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Cedrus atlantica f. GLAUCA Atlas cedar
Cedrus
The genus of cedars belongs among those trees that people remember longer than the names of kings or cities that have long since vanished from maps. Today it includes only a few species native to the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean and western Asia, even though fossil finds of pollen and wood show that cedars were once far more widespread and that their history reaches deep into the Tertiary period. The very name of the genus, derived from the Greek kedros and the Latin cedrus, evokes fragrant, resinous wood that for millennia symbolized durability, power, and sacredness. Cedars appear in biblical texts, ancient myths, and the architecture of early civilizations, where their timber was used to build temples, ships, and palaces. When you walk beneath mature specimens or watch their dignified, sometimes breathtaking silhouettes rising against the sky, it is easy to understand why they inspire both respect and affectionate reverence. The majesty of cedars is not ostentatious but calm, bringing a sense of slowing down and a particular serenity, because you realize that these trees remember not decades, but centuries.
The Atlas cedar originates in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, in places where mountain slopes bake in the summer sun and can be surprisingly cold and inhospitable in winter. It grows high above sea level (1300-2600 m) on rocky soils, in open forests where light reaches the ground and the air is dry and clear. This very combination of sun, wind, and poor soil shaped the character of the Atlas cedar—its resilience and its ability to thrive where other trees hesitate. Botanically, the species was defined and described by the French botanist Élie‑Abel Carrière (1818–1896), one of the foremost conifer specialists of the nineteenth century, who devoted himself both to their scientific taxonomy and to practical cultivation. Carrière distinguished the Atlas cedar from the already known Lebanon cedar based on populations from the Moroccan and Algerian parts of the Atlas and named it after its natural range. Early professional descriptions already pointed out differences in crown structure, finer branching, and often distinctly colored needles. These traits, together with good adaptability outside its native habitat, led to the rapid spread of the Atlas cedar in European parks and gardens in the second half of the nineteenth century, where it was perceived not as a botanical curiosity but as a naturally convincing conifer, readily understood by the eye and experience of gardeners of the time. It reached North America only at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, already as an established conifer with a confirmed reputation.
Glauca is a very popular blue‑tinged form of the Atlas cedar. It is not a single cultivar with completely uniform characteristics, but botanically a form – a group of individuals selected from the species, which, thanks to its chameleon‑like variability in needle colour, can display a whole range of blue shades. Needles of these trees show the most pronounced silvery‑blue colouring, while in terms of structure, it remains almost identical to the species. When young, it forms a regular, narrowly conical crown with a strong central leader; with age, the crown gradually loosens, flattens, and becomes broader, often developing a picturesque, irregular outline. In gardens it usually reaches a height of about 10 to 20 metres, and up to 30 metres in parks where there is unrestricted space for root development. It forms a spreading crown roughly 10 to 15 metres wide, whose full extent only becomes apparent over time. Lateral branches are set at a noticeably steeper angle than in the Lebanon cedar (almost horizontally tiered), giving the crown a more compact appearance. This lends the tree a lighter, more dynamic character.
The needles are stiff, four‑angled, usually 2 to 3 cm long, arranged in clusters on short shoots and borne singly on long annual shoots. Their colour is the principal distinguishing feature of this form – ranging from grey‑blue through silvery blue to distinctly steel‑blue tones, which are most intense in full sun and especially in winter. Male and female cones occur on the same tree; the upright cones mature over two to three years and, once disintegrated, release winged seeds.
The Atlas cedar in the glauca form appears robust, yet never heavy or coarse. The unique needle colour accentuates the architecture of the crown and gives the tree a calm, almost sculptural presence that is best appreciated in open space. It is most often planted as a specimen tree in parks and large gardens, where both its colour and form can fully stand out, but with sensitive crown management it also performs well in more intimate garden settings. The bluish foliage creates a natural contrast with the darker green of surrounding trees and with the warm tones of stone and architecture; it need not be limited to a Mediterranean style – its visual expression is so universal that it can enhance virtually any planting scheme or architectural context.
The Atlas cedar is a tree that largely looks after itself, provided it is given the right site. It thrives best in full sun, where the crown can mature evenly and the needles retain their characteristic colour. It prefers well‑drained, rather dry soils that are relatively low in nutrients, while heavy or persistently waterlogged soils are poorly tolerated. Once established, it is also highly resistant to prolonged drought and generally requires no supplemental watering. In practice, blue‑coloured forms of the Atlas cedar often cope with severe winters slightly better than green types, thanks to the thicker waxy layer on their needles. This does not represent a higher absolute frost hardiness, but rather a better tolerance of extended cold spells and sudden winter temperature fluctuations. From our own experience, the glauca form has withstood short‑term drops to around −27 °C without damage; other growers report temperatures as low as −29 °C, always for brief periods and only in well‑established trees with fully matured wood.
Last update 15-01-2009; 18-01-2026
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- STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
- DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
- EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
- STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
- HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
- SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
- HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
- FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
- GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.
