Cedar
Original title: Cedro
Entry on the conifers called cedro in Madeira, especially the native Madeiran juniper, whose aromatic wood was used for the Funchal cathedral ceiling.
Several resinous trees of the family Pinaceae go by this name in Madeira. The most common of them is Juniperus glauca, popularly known as the cedro de Goa or cedro das barracas.
The island cedar is Juniperus Oxycedrus subspecies madeirensis, a shrub or small tree 4–7 metres tall, with dioecious flowers, drooping branchlets, linear or linear-lanceolate leaves in whorls of three with 2 white stripes on the upper surface, and subglobose galbuli that are usually yellow. This cedar, cultivated on the quintas of Monte, Camacha and Santo da Serra but almost extinct in the uplands of Madeira, yields a light, aromatic wood much prized by cabinetmakers. The ceiling of the Cathedral (Sé Catedral) was built of this wood and, if what Manuel Tomás says in ‘The Island Epic’ (Insulana) is true, it was also used to build the first two-storey house in Funchal. Oil of cade is produced from J. Oxycedrus.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 05
- Camacha
Santa Cruz. Cedar cultivated there.
Camacha is an upland parish above Caniço in Santa Cruz municipality, founded in 1676 with its seat in the São Lourenço chapel. The Elucidário covers its church, role in the 1828 Miguelist invasion, quintas, levadas, the Poiso shelter house, its Pentecost pilgrimage, women's padded skirts, its plants and gardens, and its famous wickerwork industry started by Hinton.
- Funchal
Site of the first two-storey house, reportedly built of cedar.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Funchal Cathedral (the Sé)
Funchal. Its ceiling is built of Madeiran cedar.
The Sé do Funchal is the cathedral of Funchal, in the parish of Sé. It was begun in 1493, became a parish seat in 1508 and a cathedral in 1514. It was the starting point of processions and the place of the vow to São Tiago, and bishops are buried there.
- Monte
Funchal. Its quintas cultivate the native cedar.
Parish of Nossa Senhora do Monte above Funchal, at about 600 m, where leafing occurs later than in Funchal. It contains the localities of Jardim Botânico, Igreja and Marmeleiros and the Quinta de Sant'Ana. The Elucidário notes its many plants, such as acacias and Sonchus fruticosus.
- Santo da Serra
Machico. Cedar cultivated there.
Upland parish of Santo António da Serra, one of the two areas where horse breeding survives and where cedar is cultivated.
People
People mentioned · 01- Manuel Tomás1585–1665
Author of the poem Insulana, who stated that cedar wood built Funchal's first two-storey house.