There are about 50 to 70 species of this genus of evergreen coniferous trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that occur throughout the Northern Hemisphere, with 13 native to North America. The Juniper is part of the Cypress Family of Cupressaceae along with Cypress (Cupressus), False-Cypress (Chamaecyparis), Arborvitae (Thuja), Incense-Cedar (Libocedrus), and some others. The purple, almost blue, gray, blue-black or reddish-brown, waxy seed (female) cones have fleshy, fused scales that make the structure look like "berries" that are usually only on "female" plants. The juniper berries are used to flavour gin. The tiny male cones are usually just on separate "male" (staminate) plants. Most species produce the juvenile foliage that is awl-like, prickly, tiny needles. Some species only produce the awl-like needles that are very prickly. The mature foliage is scale-like and overlapping in pairs or threes, closely pressed to the rounded or four-sided branchlets with glands that produce the sticky fragrant or pungent resin. Most species have some of both awl-like and scale-like, but some only have the scale-like foliage when mature and are soft to touch, often fragrant when crushed. Because the soft, pinkish, rot-resistant wood is fragrant, junipers are often referred to as being a kind of Cedar or as Redcedar.

Reply to this comment