Eastern redcedar is having a moment on iNaturalist this week
iNaturalist Community
Native Plants
If you've noticed dense, berry-studded evergreen trees popping up in old fields, fence lines, or neglected pastures lately, you're spotting the same tree thousands of other observers logged this week, and fall is prime time to tell it apart from true cedars by its scaly blue-green foliage and small blue cones that look like berries.
Eastern redcedar is actually a juniper, not a true cedar, and right now it's one of the most-photographed and logged plants on iNaturalist in the United States. Observations jumped from 443 to 553 in a single week, likely because fall is when its blue, berry-like cones and reddish bark stand out against other foliage, making it easy to spot and easy to misidentify for curious walkers.
Key Findings
553 observations logged in the past 7 days, making it one of the most-recorded plant species in the US on iNaturalist this week
Observation count rose 110 from the prior week's 443, a roughly 25% increase
Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) belongs to the cypress family Cupressaceae, not true cedars
chevron_right Technical Summary
Eastern redcedar sightings on iNaturalist jumped to 553 observations this week across the US, up from 443 the week before, making it one of the most-logged plants on the platform right now.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Trending: eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) — 553 observations this week
Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) is a species in the family Cupressaceae. iNaturalist users recorded 553 observations of it in the United States in the 7 days before today, among the most fo...
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Juniperus virginiana, also known as eastern red cedar, red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains. Farther west it is replace...