Trees dioecious, to 30 m, single-stemmed; crown narrowly erect to conical, round, or flattened. Bark brown, exfoliating in thin strips, that of small branchlets (5--10 mm diam.) smooth, that of larger branchlets usually not exfoliating in plates. Branches pendulous to ascending; branchlets generally erect, sometimes lax to flaccid, 3--4-sided in cross section, ca. 2/3 or less as wide as length of scalelike leaves. Leaves green but sometimes turning reddish brown in winter, abaxial gland elliptic or elongate, conspicuous, exudate absent, margins entire (at 20´ and 40´); whip leaves 3--6 mm, not glaucous adaxially; scalelike leaves 1--3 mm, overlapping by more than 1/4 their length, keeled, apex obtuse to acute, spreading. Seed cones maturing in 1 year, of 1 size, generally with straight peduncles, globose to ovoid, 3--6(--7) mm, blue-black to brownish blue when mature, glaucous, soft and resinous, with 1--2(--3) seeds. Seeds 1.5--4 mm.
Shrub or tree with a dense crown, to 20 m; juvenile lvs subulate, pungent, 5-7 mm, spreading or ascending; lvs of adult branches scale-like, appressed, ovate or lance-ovate, 2-4 mm, obtuse or subacute, convex on the back; cones terminal on short, straight peduncles, subglobose, blue-glaucous, 5-7 mm thick; seeds 1 or 2, pitted toward the base. In a variety of soils, esp. in dry, calcareous sites; s. Me. and s. Que. to N.D., s. to Ga., nw. Fla., and Tex. Two weakly distinguished vars.: Var. virginiana, occurring from Va. to s. Mo. and southward, has a relatively broad, ovoid crown with widely spreading branches, and the seeds are strongly pitted. Var. crebra Fernald, the more northern phase, has a narrowly spire-shaped crown with distinctly ascending branches, and the seeds are only obscurely pitted.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.