An open shrub or weeping tree to 10 m or more tall. Young branchlets ridged. Leaves spreading, all needle-like in whorls of 3, 10-18 mm long (rarely to 25 mm), linear, tapering to a pungent point, 2 white bands above, ridged below. Cones axillary, the males 2-3 in a whorl. Fruit 7-20 mm broad, solitary and lumpily spherical, yellowish at first, ripening in the second year to a shining red-brown. Seeds 3, rarely 2.

Mediterranean, Caucasus, Iran.

Leaves all needle-like, spreading with 2 white bands above; fruit red-brown when mature.

subsp. oxycedrus

NSW: Orange (Bloomfield Hospital, opposite swimming pool near bowling club). VIC: Daylesford (Wombat Hill); Footscray (Park); Geelong (Eastern Park); Kyneton (Bot. Gds). TAS: Hobart (Royal Tasmanian Bot. Gds).

 

subsp. macrocarpa (Sibth. &Sm.) Ball Leaves 20-25 mm long and fruits 10-15 mm broad. An early, possibly nineteenth century, planting in old public gardens.

VIC: Castlemaine (Bot. Gds, tree c. 10 m tall).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Cupressaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.