Callitropsis nootkatensis(D.Don) Oerst.

Alaska cedar

WFO wfo-0000911903 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Lyrae
fig. a Lyrae, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-14 / obs. 198648469
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Braden J. Judson
fig. b Braden J. Judson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 190877637
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Joshua
fig. c Joshua, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176991309
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Ben Meredyk
fig. d Ben Meredyk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153836570
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Bruce Slater
fig. e Bruce Slater, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153682211
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Nolan Exe
fig. f Nolan Exe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150392778
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by John Brew
fig. g John Brew, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153294276
Callitropsis nootkatensis, photographed by Thompson Hyggen
fig. h Thompson Hyggen, CC0 1.0 / obs. 146036376

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 5 botanical countries

Regions where Callitropsis nootkatensis is native: Alaska, British Columbia, California, Oregon, Washington AlaskaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaOregonWashington
Native distribution of Callitropsis nootkatensis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Oregon ORE
Washington WAS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,988 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -9.5 °C -3.8 °C 2.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.4 °C 17.6 °C 23.1 °C
Annual rainfall 1,655 mm 3,224 mm 4,393 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 131 mm 303 mm 508 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,988 research-grade observations of Callitropsis nootkatensis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Callitropsis nootkatensis (D.Don) Florin
  • Chamaecyparis excelsa Fisch. ex Carrière
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D.Don) Spach
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis f. compacta (Gordon) Rehder
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis f. glauca (Müll.Stuttg.) Rehder
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis f. lutea (Müll.Stuttg.) Rehder
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis f. pendula (G.Nicholson) Beissn.
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis f. viridis-pendula Beissn.
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis var. glauca Müll.Stuttg.
  • Chamaecyparis nootkatensis var. pendula G.Nicholson
  • Cupressus americana Trautv.
  • Cupressus nootkatensis D.Don
  • Cupressus nootkatensis var. compacta Gordon
  • Cupressus nootkatensis var. glauca (Müll.Stuttg.) G.Kirchn.
  • Cupressus nootkatensis var. lutea Webster
  • Cupressus nootkatensis var. pendula (G.Nicholson) Webster
  • Thuja excelsa Bong.
  • Thujopsis borealis Carrière
  • Thujopsis cupressoides Carrière
  • Thujopsis tchugatskoyae Carrière
  • Xanthocyparis nootkatensis (D.Don) Farjon & D.K.Harder

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol CANO9. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.