True Cedars

• A handful of species of cedar grow in the Mediterranean and Himalayan regions of Eurasia. These include the deodar cedar of Pakistan and northern India's montane forests, the Atlas cedar of North Africa and the Lebanon cedar of Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese mountains. All of the true cedars have been widely cultivated in other parts of the world, including North America.
  
  

Cypress Family

• In North America, a number of trees belonging to the cypress family are also called cedars, though they are only loosely related to the true cedars of the Old World. These include the eastern red-cedar, most widely distributed conifer in the American East, and the western red-cedar of the Pacific Northwest, one of the most massive trees on the continent. The leaves of these "false" cedars are more scale-like than the spiny needles of true cedars.
  
  

Cedar Glades

• Tennessee's Cedars of Lebanon State Forest Natural Area protects a rare, extensive remnant of "cedar glades," communities of eastern red-cedar once widespread in the central U.S. The name derives from the true cedars that famously blanketed Mount Lebanon prior to extensive deforestation.