Cedar glades versus cedar hedges

Placement is the verdict. Missouri Department of Conservation: before European settlement, eastern red cedar was uncommon and almost entirely restricted to bluffs and cliffs — places where fire could not reach it. It invades glades and prairies that are not burned. It has been cultivated since 1664; old specimens stand in cemeteries, farmyards, and neighborhoods. Hank Stelzer, University of Missouri Extension (Spring 2006): in the first 30 feet, eliminate all conifers (especially red cedar). This directory’s Juniperus virginiana currently computes as avoid and includes MO.

You are looking at a 1,000-year tree on an Ozark bluff and a privacy hedge against a farmhouse and calling both “native cedar.” MDC is cutting the glade invader. Stelzer is telling you not to plant the hedge in Zone 1. Same species. Different place.

This is not a Missouri doorway.

Why it matters

“Native evergreen” is easy to hear as a farmyard screen. MDC’s opened field guide is fire-protected bluffs, then invasion after suppression, then 1664 cultivation. Stelzer’s opened newsletter is especially red cedar in the first 30 feet. Is the Ozark cedar invasion a fire problem is FEIS ecology with an Arkansas Firewise frame. This page is MDC plus MU Extension placement. Juniper or redcedar is the name problem. This page is the hedge.

Zone 0 is still not a planting list.

This site’s Missouri plant evidence currently holds 493 USDA-distribution records. That is occurrence, not a cemetery-cedar permit.

How it works

The bluff (MDC field guide):

• Habitat: glades and bluffs; open rocky woods, pastures, old fields, roadsides, fencerows.
• Some gnarled Ozark bluff cedars are over 1,000 years old.
• Before settlement: almost entirely on bluffs and cliffs where fire could not reach it.
• After suppression: commonplace. Invades unburned glades and prairies, turning grassland into forest.
• Prescribed burning and cutting. Cut-down cedars in Missouri natural areas.
• “It’s strange to think of a native plant as invasive.”

The hedge (MDC Human Connections + Stelzer):

• Cultivated since 1664. Cemeteries, farmyards, neighborhoods.
• Oil from the resin for ointments, soaps, gin.
• Traditional Christmas tree. Dense crowns for birds. That is wildlife and culture, not Zone 1.
• Stelzer Zone 1 (first 30 feet): grass lawn; shrubs no taller than 18 inches and fire-resistant; eliminate all conifers (especially red cedar). Prune 6–10 feet. Most Missouri wildfires stay on the ground.
• Stelzer: no fireproof plant. Fire-resistant examples: oak, hickory, maple, ash, dogwood, redbud, sumac. Flammable: needle-like leaves; resinous, oily or waxy foliage. Junipers, pines and cedars.
• Stelzer Zone 1 is 30 feet, not IBHS 0–5. Both can be true. They are not the same band.

Not the same juniper:

• MDC: one other native, Juniperus ashei, uncommon in the southwestern Ozarks.
• This directory: J. ashei candidate, MO. J. virginiana avoid, consensus, MO.
• MDC: landscaping cypress-family plants (Italian cypress, dawn redwood, arborvitae) are not Missouri flora. Do not store them as J. virginiana.
• True cedars are Cedrus. See juniper or redcedar.

This directory:

• Missouri: 493 records. 305 on-list, 41 avoid, 11 conflict, 136 candidate.
• Juniperus virginiana avoid, consensus, MO.
• Juniperus ashei candidate, MO.
• Quercus alba on-list, MO.
• Quercus stellata on-list, MO.
• Cercis canadensis on-list, MO. Stelzer named redbud.
• Cornus florida on-list, MO. Stelzer named dogwood.

See how to read a plant page. See one verdict per juniper species.

The paths

What people mix up

• A 1,000-year bluff tree with a farmyard screen.
• Native with on-list. MDC calls it native. This site computes avoid.
• Invasive of glades with non-native weed. MDC: strange, but native.
• J. virginiana with J. ashei, arborvitae, Italian cypress, or Cedrus.
• Stelzer’s 30-foot Zone 1 with IBHS 0–5-foot Immediate Zone.
• FEIS Ozark fire-interval numbers (Ozark cedar invasion) with this MDC/Stelzer page.
• On-list oak or redbud with a five-foot planting.
• Iowa windbreaks with a Missouri cemetery cedar.

How to check

1. Open the MDC eastern red cedar field guide. Read “places where fire could not reach it.” Read “cemeteries, farmyards, and neighborhoods.”
2. Open Stelzer 2006. Read “especially red cedar.”
3. Open Juniperus virginiana and Juniperus ashei.
4. Open Missouri plant evidence. Distribution is not a recommendation.
5. Do not plant in Zone 0.

Limits

This page quotes the opened MDC field guide, the opened 5 December 2021 Discover Nature Notes post, and the opened Spring 2006 Green Horizons article by Hank Stelzer. Stelzer’s Zone 1 is 30 feet; it is not updated here to a later Immediate Zone. The article points readers to local MDC offices and to firewise.org as it stood in 2006; those live sites are not re-opened as 2026 plant tables. FEIS fire-interval figures for a southern Missouri glade are on the Ozark cedar page and are not re-quoted here. 493 is a count of stored USDA-distribution rows as of this writing, not an MDC statistic. Zone 0 is not a planting list.

Related records

• Juniperus virginiana
• Juniperus ashei
• Missouri plant evidence
• Is the Ozark cedar invasion a fire problem
• Juniper or redcedar
• Glossary: Zone 0