An uncommon cultivar spotted one day, the Gold or yellow color jumped out at me and I had to stop. Its in a line of 'Smaragd' arborivates and most likely was planted by mistake. Oh well, its nice to see. Reported growing to 12', forms a narrow upright cone with brilliant yellow leaves. Makes a nice specimen, but not sure I could handle it as a hedge.
Leaves are scale-like, very small, typical of arborvitaes, on flattened stems.
Close-up of the leaves as well as the young cones.
Misidentification:
Not the oriental arborvitae, the leaves though small are larger than the oriental and the cones are very different. There are a few yellow western arborvitaes around but they have elongated branchlets rather than fan shaped.
Location:
Aptos
3595 E. Ledyard Way