Eastern Redcedar Profile for Virginia
Virginia's wildlife table reports eastern redcedar as drought tolerant and not preferred by deer, but not suited to wet or anaerobic soil.
Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) is an evergreen tree that Virginia’s wildlife-habitat guide includes in its selected native-shrub table. The source lists about 20 feet at 20 years, so this is not a compact shrub by default. Its entry reports high drought tolerance, intermediate shade tolerance, and low tolerance of anaerobic soil.
Site profile
The table marks eastern redcedar as not preferred by deer. This describes relative browsing preference in the source, not immunity from browsing at a particular site. The table does not supply county-level distribution, nursery provenance, exact light requirements, or a mature width. Do not read “intermediate shade” as evidence for a deeply shaded, waterlogged planting bed.
The tree illustration is not to scale or a county-range reference; verify the plant’s mature form and local occurrence.
Use the guide’s values as a regional screen, then check native occurrence in your locality and the mature form of the plant being sold. Wildlife uses beyond the table’s measured fields are not established here. Compare its drought and soil limits with the other candidates in Virginia’s dry-shade shrub guide.
Sources and further reading
- Habitat Gardening for Wildlifeauthoritative-secondary