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| Contents |
| Juniper | ||||||||||||
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Juniperus communis shrubs in The Netherlands | ||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
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| Species | ||||||||||||
| 50-55 species; see text. |
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. There are about 50-55 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.
Cones and leaves of Juniperus communis Junipers vary in size and shape from tall trees to 20-40 m tall, to columnar or low spreading shrubs with long trailing branches. They are evergreen with either needle-like and/or scale-like leaves. They can be either monoeciousPlant sexuality deals with the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. That plants employ many different strategies to engage in sexual reproduction was used, from just a structural perspective, by Carolus Linnaeus (173 or dioeciousPlant sexuality deals with the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. That plants employ many different strategies to engage in sexual reproduction was used, from just a structural perspective, by Carolus Linnaeus (173. The female seed conesA cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta ( conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the seed-producing female cone. The male cones, which produces are very distinctive, with fleshy, fruitIn botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would be plum, apple, and or-like coalescing scales which fuse together to form a "berry"-like structure, 4-27 mm long, with 1-12 unwinged, hard-shelled seedThis writeup is about biological seeds; for the Buddhist metaphor, see bija. A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. The importance of the seed relative to more primitive forms of reproduction and dispersal is attested to by the sus. In some species these "berries" are red-brown or orange but in most they are blue; they are often aromatic. The seed maturation time 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.
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, 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 being 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 ( CupressusSee text The genus Cupressus is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress for the others, see cypress (disambiguation). As currently treated, these cypresses are native to scattered localities in mainly warm te, ChamaecyparisChamaecyparis formosensis Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Chamaecyparis obtusa Chamaecyparis pisifera Chamaecyparis taiwanensis Chamaecyparis thyoides The genus Chamaecyparis is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypre) and other related genera is soft and not prickly.