Arbor Vitae (Black Diamond) Traditional Cache

This Arbor Vitae is covered with invasive vines. It is closest to the Willow Creek Rd intersection with the Black Diamond Trail, approaching it from the South. Of course you can reach it easiest by bike, then you may do the whole trail.

Thuja occidentalis, also known as northern white-cedar or eastern arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north, central and upper Northeastern United States, but widely cultivated as an ornamental plant. 

Common names

Common names include:

    •    northern white-cedar or white cedar

    •    eastern white-cedar or white cedar

    •    white cedar

    •    swamp cedar

    •    false white cedar

    •    arborvitae

    •    American arborvitae

    •    eastern arborvitae

The name arborvitae is particularly used in the horticultural trade in the United States. It is Latin for "tree of life" - due to the supposed medicinal properties of the sap, bark and twigs. Despite its common names, it is not a true cedar in the genus Cedrus, nor is it related to the Australian white cedar, Melia azedarach.

Uses

They are widely grown as ornamental trees, and extensively used for hedges. A number of cultivars are grown and used in landscapes.Homeowners will sometimes plant them as privacy trees. The cultivar 'Green Giant' is popular as a very vigorous hedging plant, growing up to 80 cm/year when young.

The wood is light, soft and aromatic. It can be easily split and resists decay. The wood has been used for many applications from making chests that repel moths to shingles. Thuja poles are also often used to make fence posts and rails. The wood of Thuja plicata is commonly used for guitar sound boards. Its combination of light weight and resistance to decay has also led to T. plicata (Western Redcedar) being widely used for the construction of bee hives.

Oil of thuja contains the terpene thujon  which has been studied for its GABA receptor antagonistic, with potentially lethal properties. Cedarwood oil and cedar leaf oil, which are derived from Thuja occidentalis, have different properties and uses.

The natives of Canada used the needles of Thuja occidentalis (Eastern White Cedar) to make a tea that has been shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams; this helped prevent and treat scurvy.

Unlike the closely related western red-cedar (Thuja plicata), northern white-cedar is only a small or medium-sized tree, growing to a height of 15 m (49 ft) tall with a 0.9 metres (2 ft 11 in) trunk diameter, exceptionally to 38 meters (125 ft) tall and 1.8 meters (5 ft 11 in) diameter. The tree is often stunted or prostrate in less favorable locations. The bark is red-brown, furrowed and peels in narrow, longitudinal strips.

Northern white-cedar has fan-like branches and scaly leaves. The foliage forms in flat sprays with scale-like leaves 3–5 millimeters (1⁄8–3⁄16 in) long.

The seed cones are slender, yellow-green, ripening to brown, 9–14 millimetres (11⁄32–9⁄16 in) long and 4–5 millimetres (5⁄32–3⁄16 in) broad, with 6-8 overlapping scales. They contain about 8 seeds each. The branches may take root if the tree falls.

Distribution

Northern white-cedar is native to an area in the southern part of eastern Canada and the adjacent part of the northern United States. It extends from southeastern Manitoba east throughout the Great Lakes region and into Ontario, Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.There are isolated populations in west-central Manitoba, and to the south in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio,, and Illinois and in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. In Canada, its range reaches the Arctic treeline and the southern tip of Hudson Bay. It grows mainly in places with cooler summers, with an average of 16 to 22 °C (61 to 72 °F) in July, and a shorter growing season, from 90 to 180 days.

White-cedar specimens found growing on cliff faces in southern Ontario are the oldest trees in Eastern North America and all of Canada, growing to ages in excess of 1,653 years.

Uses

White-cedar is a tree with important uses in traditional Ojibwe culture. Honored with the name Nookomis Giizhik ("Grandmother Cedar"), the tree is the subject of sacred legends and is considered a gift to humanity for its myriad uses, among them crafts, construction, and medicine. It is one of the four plants of the Ojibwe medicine wheel, associated with the north. White-cedar foliage is rich in Vitamin C and is believed to be the annedda which cured the scurvy of Jacques Cartier and his party in the winter of 1535–1536. Due to the presence of the neurotoxic compound thujone, internal use can be harmful if used for prolonged periods or while pregnant.

Northern white-cedar is commercially used for rustic fencing and posts, lumber, poles, shingles and in the construction of log cabins. White-cedar is the preferred wood for the structural elements, such as ribs and planking, of birchbark canoes and the planking of wooden canoes.

The essential oil within the plant has been used for cleansers, disinfectants, hair preparations, insecticides, liniment, room sprays, and soft soaps. There are some reports that the Ojibwa made a soup from the inner bark of the soft twigs. Others have used the twigs to make teas to relieve constipation and headache.

In the 19th century, T. occidentalis extract was in common use as an externally applied tincture or ointment for the treatment of warts, ringworm, and thrush. "An injection of the tincture into venereal warts is said to cause them to disappear.”

Strips of clear, northern white-cedar wood were used to make the original Au Sable river boats, formerly known as the "pickup trucks of the Au Sable". The light, rot resistant wood was preferred but is now commonly replaced by marine grade plywood. Since the plywood is available in lengths of 8 feet, the modern boats are slightly shorter than the older boats which were around 25 feet long.

The cache is a tied in, camoed, "small" pill bottle; push really hard to open and close. Please BYOP and put everything back exactly as you found it. Please report on the condition of the cache.