What are Juniper Trees?


 

What are Juniper Trees or Junipers?

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the mountains of Central America in the New World.

Junipers vary in form from trees up 40 metres tall, to columnar or low spreading shrubs with prostrate trailing branches. They are evergreen with needle-like or scale-like leaves. They can be either monoecious or dioecious. The female cones are fleshy, their fruit having coalescing scales that fuse together to form a berry-like object containing the seeds beneath the scales. In some species these "berries" are red-brown or orange but in most they are blue when ripe, green when unripe; they are often aromatic, and are sometimes used as a spice. When the seed becomes ripe varies between species from 6-18 months after pollination. The male cones are similar to those of other Cupressaceae, with 6-20 scales; most shed their pollen in early spring, but some species pollinate in the autumn.

Leaves and Shoots

Many junipers (e.g. J. chinensis, J. virginiana) have two types of leaves: seedlings and some twigs of older trees have needle-like leaves 5-25 mm long; and the leaves on mature plants are (mostly) tiny (2-4 mm long), overlapping and scale-like. When juvenile foliage occurs on mature plants, it is most often found on shaded shoots, with adult foliage in full sunlight. Leaves on fast-growing 'whip' shoots are often intermediate between juvenile and adult.

In some species (e.g. J. communis, J. squamata), all the foliage is of the juvenile needle-like type (see image above), with no scale leaves. In some of these (e.g. J. communis), the needles are jointed at the base, in others (e.g. J. squamata), the needles merge smoothly with the stem, not jointed.

The needle-leaves of junipers are hard and sharp, making the juvenile foliage very prickly to handle. This can be a valuable identification feature in seedlings, as the otherwise very similar juvenile foliage of cypresses and other related genera is soft and not prickly.

Classification

The number of juniper species is disputed, with two recent studies giving very different totals, Farjon (2001) accepting 52 species, and Adams (2004) accepting 67 species. The junipers are divided into several sections, though (particularly among the scale-leaved species) which species belong to which sections is still far from clear, with research still on-going. The section Juniperus an obvious monophyletic group though.

  • Juniperus section. Juniperus: Needle-leaf junipers. The adult leaves are needle-like, in whorls of three, and jointed at the base (see below right).
    • Juniperus sect. Juniperus subsect. Juniperus: Cones with 3 separate seeds; needles with one stomatal band.
      • Juniperus communis - Common Juniper
        • Juniperus communis subsp. alpina - Alpine Juniper
      • Juniperus conferta - Shore Juniper (syn. J. rigida var. conferta)
      • Juniperus rigida - Temple Juniper or Needle Juniper
    • Juniperus sect. Juniperus subsect. Oxycedrus: Cones with 3 separate seeds; needles with two stomatal bands.
      • Juniperus brevifolia - Azores Juniper
      • Juniperus cedrus - Canary Islands Juniper
      • Juniperus deltoides - Eastern Prickly Juniper
      • Juniperus formosana - Chinese Prickly Juniper
      • Juniperus luchuensis - Ryukyu Juniper
      • Juniperus navicularis - Portuguese Prickly Juniper
      • Juniperus oxycedrus - Western Prickly Juniper or Cade Juniper
      • Juniperus macrocarpa (J. oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa) - Large-berry Juniper
    • Juniperus sect. Juniperus subsect. Caryocedrus: Cones with 3 seeds fused together; needles with two stomatal bands.
      • Juniperus drupacea - Syrian Juniper
Juniper needles, magnified. Left, Juniperus communis (Juniperus sect. Juniperus; note needles 'jointed' at base). Right, Juniperus chinensis (Juniperus sect. Sabina; note needles merging smoothly with the stem, not jointed at base).

 



Right: Juniperus phoenicea. An ancient, wind-bent specimen on El Hierro, Canary Islands

 




An Eastern Juniper in October laden with ripe cones.

 

 

 

 

  • Juniperus section. Sabina: Scale-leaf junipers. The adult leaves are mostly scale-like, similar to those of Cupressus species, in opposite pairs or whorls of three, and the juvenile needle-like leaves are not jointed at the base (including in the few that have only needle-like leaves; see below right).
    • Provisionally, all the other junipers are included here, though they form a paraphyletic group.
      • Juniperus angosturana - Mexican One-seed Juniper
      • Juniperus ashei - Ashe Juniper
      • Juniperus barbadensis - West Indies Juniper
      • Juniperus bermudiana - Bermuda Juniper
      • Juniperus blancoi - Blanco's Juniper
      • Juniperus californica - California Juniper
      • Juniperus chinensis - Chinese Juniper
        • Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii - Sargent's Juniper
      • Juniperus coahuilensis - Coahuila Juniper
      • Juniperus comitana - Comitán Juniper
      • Juniperus convallium - Mekong Juniper
      • Juniperus deppeana - Alligator Juniper
      • Juniperus durangensis - Durango Juniper
      • Juniperus excelsa - Greek Juniper
        • Juniperus excelsa subsp. polycarpos - Persian Juniper
      • Juniperus flaccida - Mexican Weeping Juniper
      • Juniperus foetidissima - Stinking Juniper
      • Juniperus gamboana - Gamboa Juniper
      • Juniperus gaussenii - Gaussen's Juniper
      • Juniperus horizontalis - Creeping Juniper
      • Juniperus indica - Black Juniper
      • Juniperus jaliscana - Jalisco Juniper
      • Juniperus komarovii - Komarov's Juniper
      • Juniperus monosperma - One-seed Juniper
      • Juniperus monticola - Mountain Juniper
      • Juniperus occidentalis - Western Juniper
        • Juniperus occidentalis subsp. australis - Sierra Juniper
      • Juniperus osteosperma - Utah Juniper
      • Juniperus phoenicea - Phoenicean Juniper
      • Juniperus pinchotii - Pinchot Juniper
      • Juniperus procera - East African Juniper
      • Juniperus procumbens - Ibuki Juniper
      • Juniperus pseudosabina - Xinjiang Juniper
      • Juniperus recurva - Himalayan Juniper
        • Juniperus recurva var. coxii - Cox's Juniper
      • Juniperus sabina - Savin Juniper
        • Juniperus sabina var. davurica - Daurian Juniper
      • Juniperus saltillensis - Saltillo Juniper
      • Juniperus saltuaria - Sichuan Juniper
      • Juniperus scopulorum - Rocky Mountain Juniper
      • Juniperus semiglobosa - Russian Juniper
      • Juniperus squamata - Flaky Juniper
      • Juniperus standleyi - Standley's Juniper
      • Juniperus thurifera - Spanish Juniper
      • Juniperus tibetica - Tibetan Juniper
      • Juniperus virginiana - Eastern Juniper
        • Juniperus virginiana subsp. silicicola - Southern Juniper
      • Juniperus wallichiana - Himalayan Black Juniper

How to grow Junipers in your garden
How to grow junipers in your garden - their cultivation requirements.

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