This Elegantissima Arborvitae is a tall, columnar to conical evergreen that has yellow tipped, dark green leaves with a fissured, reddish bark.The leaves are scale-like 1–10 mm long, except young seedlings in their first year, which have needle-like leaves. It is a low maintenance tree that like the sun.The shoots are flat, with side shoots only in a single plane. The female cones start out similarly inconspicuous, but grow to about 1-2 cm long at maturity when 6–8 months old; they have 6-12 overlapping, thin, leathery scales, each scale bearing 1–2 small seeds with a pair of narrow lateral wings.
Evergreen, coniferous trees growing to 10–60 m tall, with stringy-textured reddish-brown bark. The Elegantissima Arborvitae tolerates droughts and animals such as deer and rabbits. The scale leaves are arranged in titleernating decussate pairs in four rows along the twigs. The male cones are small, inconspicuous, and are located at the tips of the twigs.Narrow pyramidal form; dark green foliage tipped yellow, turning bronze in winter; grows 10-15’ high, 4-5’ wide; full sun; tolerant of pruning. Excellent as screen.
