The Cedar That Turned Out to Be a Pine

I lived in Siberia for twenty years. At 44, I discovered that the Siberian cedar is actually a pine. An unexpected botany lesson.

Its botanical name is Pinus sibirica, the Siberian pine. “Cedar” is its traditional Russian name. True cedars, such as the Lebanon and Cyprus cedars, belong to a different genus, Cedrus. Pines and cedars are relatives, but their needles, cones and seeds are built differently.

Siberian pine has long needles in bundles of five. True cedars usually have shorter needles, with several dozen packed into dense clusters on short shoots.

The cones offer an even clearer distinction. Siberian pine cones fall to the ground whole. Cedar cones break apart on the branch when ripe, releasing winged seeds that are carried by the wind. The familiar “cedar nuts” are the large, wingless seeds of the Siberian pine.

Now I live in Cyprus, where a true cedar grows: the Cyprus cedar. Twenty years in Siberia, and it took moving here to finally sort out the cedars.