Much of the extremely slow growth of seedlings results from suppression or browsing. Incense-cedar is a good competitor on hot, dry sites and is commonly found on southwestern slopes. Incense-cedar may grow on a wide variety of soils derived from many kinds of parent materials. It has been found to extract soil phosphorus and calcium, and exclude surplus magnesium. Soil pH ranges from nearly neutral to strongly acidic.
Textures vary from coarse sands to very fine clays.
Facultative Seral Species Along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, incense-cedar and white fir form an understory in forests of ponderosa and sugar pine. In early seral development, small groups of these trees grow beneath the canopy in shady conditions until an opening in the crown is created.