Evergreen tree, 10-30 m high. Leaves small, scale-like, dull green, closely adpressed to the branchlets. Male flowers terminal on the branchlets, in yellow-brown ovoid cones, 3-5 mm long. Female cones on short lateral shoots near the base of the branchlets, subglobose, with 8-14 coriaceous scales. Seed 8-20 on each scale, dark reddish-brown, elliptic-oblong.
The tree is native in East Mediterranean, probably the Agean region