Cedro
The cedar-potato (Cedrela fissilis) is a beautiful tree, with great development. It reaches up to 30 meters in height. Its flowers are white, the wood is used in luxury joinery and carving works. Many images are carved from cedar. The cigars are wrapped in a very thin film of cedar, to capture their aroma, and the boxes that contain them are made with this wood. Furthermore, the wood subjected to distillation provides oil.
Reading this description, one can already imagine that, due to its versatility, its exploitation was intense in the past, as in fact it happened with all the noble species of the Atlantic Forest. In addition to the utilities mentioned above, cedar also has an excellent reddish-colored wood for civil construction, naval and aeronautics.
The natural occurrence of the tree is from Rio Grande do Sul to Minas Gerais, but it can be found in lesser intensity throughout the country. In Santa Catarina, it occurred throughout the state territory and in all types of forest formations.
Cedar has a very famous Amazon cousin, which is also very much explored, so much so that it is included in the list of species of flora threatened with extinction, which is mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla).
Cedar is a species with high potential for reforestation, whether for restoration of degraded environments, carbon sequestration, landscaping or plantations for economic purposes. It is one of the species produced in the Jardim das Florestas nursery since its inception, back in 1987. Currently, there are thousands of seedlings available in the nursery, for anyone who wants to plant.
The fruits are woody, thick, wrinkled, dark brown, 3 to 10 centimeters long and 3 to 3.5 centimeters wide. They can weigh approximately 13 grams, containing around 30 to 100 seeds per fruit.
On the other hand, its seeds are laterally compressed, with color close to brown and reddish. They have a small seminal core, up to 35 millimeters long and 15 millimeters wide.
Cedar is known to be the symbol of the flag of Lebanon and to have an important meaning for the Lebanese. However, more than that, cedar is a tree with countless possibilities of use, particular characteristics and very advantageous.
Planting cedar can help degraded areas and contaminated soils. Furthermore, the different species of the tree have properties unique to their regions of origin. In Brazil, it is possible to find many of these species spread over a large part of the territory.
Cedar is the name given to a tree that belongs to the Pinophyta division, in the gymnosperm group. Also known as acaiacá, it is distributed throughout the Brazilian territory. The cedar tree is mostly found in open forests or in fields with a hot and humid climate, in addition to well-draining soils.
It can also be found along the entire length of Rio Grande do Sul to Pará, in the Atlantic semideciduous forest, with altitudes ranging from 5 to 1800 meters. There are many species of cedar around the world. Therefore, the main ones are:
Cedar of Lebanon;
Pink Cedar;
Arana Cedar
The use of cedar has many purposes mainly because of its wood. Cedar wood is widely used, for example, in the manufacture of:
foundry models;
picture frames;
office supplies;
Musical instruments;
Civil, naval and aeronautical construction;
Woodwork;
Furniture;
Sculptures;
Broom handles, among others.
As a tree with ornamental beauty, cedar can be used in urban and landscape afforestation projects. However, it is also very important when used to recover forests from degraded areas and riparian forests, as well as recovering soils that have been contaminated by toxic amounts of heavy metals.
