Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Utah Juniper
Juniperus osteosperma
Cypress family (Cupressaceae)

Lower branches of Utah Juniper typically die after many decades (even centuries) of growth and these dead branches add to the tree's grandeur. At two or three hundred years a Utah Juniper is still middle-aged. Utah Juniper's light green rounded, -like leaves, blue cones (), and low-growing, spreading, irregular shape are distinctive. Green-yellow balls of Mistletoe are common in some Junipers in some areas of their growth range such as Mesa Verde National Park. The Utah Juniper is usually , i.e., it usually has both male and female floral parts on each tree and therefore has seeds (enclosed in a blue cone) on all trees. The seeds of these trees take two seasons to mature. The was named Juniperus by Linnaeus in 1753. "Osteosperma" is Latin for "hard seed." John Bigelow collected the first specimen of this tree in Arizona in about 1853. See the similar, mostly higher elevation, Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum).


©2005 Stan Shebs

Description

conical-shaped to spreading tree, to 30' tall, trunk single or with several stems from just above the ground, often horizontal and arching upward; bark thin, ash-gray, peeling. Very long-lived. leaves needle-shaped, ~1/10" long, . Flowers usually . mealy, blue, , 1/4 to 1/3" across.

Field Marks

tree with cylindrical clusters of -like leaves, blue mealy .

© Al Schneider

An evergreen tree retains a large portion of its green leaves all year.

scale -- A very small leaf around a dormant bud. Also other things that might remind one of fish scales on the surface of ferns, stems and the like.

glaucous -- Pale gray or bluish-green. It can mean covered with a greyish, bluish or whitish coating.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

The botanical term "berry" is different from common usage. Strawberries and raspberries are not berries. But a tomatoe is. A true berry is a fruit with the seeds immersed in the pulp.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

monoecious -- all flowers have both sexes; or both sexes in different flowers on the same plant.