Cedar
Thuja plicata
Also called Western red cedar
- Cree
- mihkwásit
Know another name for this plant, or a different spelling? Tell us.
One of the four sacred medicines. Cedar does not grow on this prairie; it comes from the west, and it has moved along trade routes into this country for a very long time. Guardian of the west in the medicine wheel.
Speak with someone who knows this plant before you harvest it.
Take care
- Cedar contains thujone. The Montana guide limits it to one cup a day and that limit should be respected.
- Not taken internally in pregnancy.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedJuniper Juniperus species
Junipers also carry scale leaves and are often called cedar. Juniper bears round blue berry-like cones; true cedar bears small woody cones and grows as a big tree with stringy bark.
How to know it
- Leaves
- Flat sprays of small overlapping scales, glossy green above, with a faint white butterfly pattern on the underside.
- Bark
- Reddish-brown and fibrous, peeling off in long vertical strips.
- Smell
- Strong, sweet and unmistakably cedar when a spray is crushed.
- Where
- Wet forests of the far west. Not a prairie tree, and not something to go looking for around Lethbridge.
The country it grows in
- Mountain forest
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Leaves May to JuneThe Montana guide times this by the dogwood bloom, in May and June.
- Bark May to June
Right now it is July. Nothing on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Smudge and ceremony
- Breathing and colds
- Skin and wounds
Spirit of the west in the medicine wheel: guards and protects Mother Earth and the children.
Burned as a smudge, and used in a wash and a tea.
How it is prepared
- Smudge
Dried sprays are burned; the smoke is used to clean a space or a person.
- Tea
The Montana guide gives it as cedar laid on six cups of boiling water, boiled at least ten minutes, taken off once the water turns green.
One cup a day at most. Cedar contains thujone, which is toxic to people in larger doses.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
Cedar is usually obtained through trade or a gift here rather than gathered. Where it is gathered, unused cedar is returned to the earth rather than thrown out.