Eastern
red-cedar, Juniperus virginiana L., is actually a juniper rather than a true cedar such as the Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani A. Rich. [excluded], all of which are
The wood of red-cedar is used for chest and closet linings due to moths not liking the aroma, which sure beats the stench of mothballs. The wood is also a favorite for fences, whittling, pet bedding and formerly pencils. The saplings were long used for Christmas trees before artificial and farm grown trees were available. Due to the awl like juvenile foliage relative to scale like mature foliage those with more mature foliage on a smaller tree were selected thus the remaining trees now have a higher percentage with awl like foliage for a longer period.
Southern red-cedar, J. virginiana L. var. silicicola (Small) J. Silba, is a variety of eastern red-cedar that
is sometimes considered a separate species or subspecies; it is typically found near the coast from the Carolinas into
Common juniper, J. communis L., is reported to be rare in Alabama, thus it and many of the other junipers in the nursery trade are not well adapted to the hot and humid climate resulting in stresses that increase the susceptibility to diseases or pest such as bagworms, and this is especially so if densely planted as is the case at some highway interchange beautification projects that are effectively waste of our tax dollars. The berries, actually fleshy cones, of common juniper are used as a spice and to flavor gin.
In the Bible the algum tree mentioned in II Chronicles 2:8 is identified as the Grecian juniper, J. excelsa M. Bieb, the cedar wood of Leviticus 14 is identified as the phonecian juniper, J. phoenicia L., and the cedar mentioned in Numbers 19:6 is J. oxycedrus L. These junipers called cedar better explains, especially when considering the specific epithet of the later consist of the name of the genus for true cedars with a prefix added, how or why eastern red-cedar got called cedar than any similarity with true cedar.