Tall evergreen trees, broad, irregular crown, bark dark gray. Branches with short shoots. Needles stiff, mostly in dense clusters on short shoots. Cedrus are native to the mountains of the southern and southeastern Mediterranean region and the western Himalayas. Formerly considered to include four species, now reduced to two or three, C. deodara of the Himalayas, C. libani (Cedar of Lebanon) of the Mediterranean, and C. atlantica, the most common species used in landscaping. But C. atlantica is also considered by some to be a subspecies of C. libani (i.e., C. libani subsp. atlantica), or even just synonymous. C. brevifolia is usually considered to be a "variant" of C. libani, either as a subspecies (C. libani subsp. brevifolia) or a varietas ("variety") (C. libani var. brevifolia).