Where is juniper found

The most famous use of juniper berries is in the flavouring of gin. They have also recently become a popular ingredient in liqueurs and sauces and are used as a spice, particularly in European cuisine. The aromatic wood has a warm, sandy, golden colour and is used for wood turning and carving as well as for burning to smoke food. The berries produce an oil which can be used to aid respiratory and digestive problems, and was once considered a good method to terminate a pregnancy.

The essential oil is also used in aromatherapy and perfumery. Juniper has been declining throughout the UK in range and abundance. It is not known exactly why, but it appears that the plants are unable to regenerate successfully, a problem partially attributed to browsing of foliage by deer and rabbits. Juniper may also be affected by Phytophthora root rot and has recently been found to be susceptible to Phytophthora austrocedrae , a fungus-like organism which infects the plant via the roots and causes foliage to decline and eventually die.

We have single trees and tree packs to meet your needs, from wildlife to woodfuel. Delivery is free. What it looks like Where to find it Value to wildlife Uses and mythology Threats. Quick facts. Common names: juniper, common juniper Scientific name: Juniperus communis Family: Cupressaceae Origin: native.

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Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 12 November Junipers are also dimorphic, meaning they have two growth forms. Seedlings bear bluish-green awl-shaped leaves that are pointed at the tip possibly to discourage herbivores. Mature leaves are darker green and scalelike in appearance.

This juvenile form may help reduce herbivores from devouring the young plants. The mature leaves are borne in pairs or whorls of three, are rounded at the tip and appressed to the twig. As the trees age, the trunks may become twisted or gnarled. Exactly why this habit occurs, no one knows. Stout single trunks or multiple stems originating from the ground are a couple of forms the trees exhibit. Junipers are members of the cypress family Cupressaceae which includes cedars. The genus Juniperus is the old Latin name for the plant.

Western junipers occur in the Great Basin portion of eastern California, northwestern Nevada, eastern Oregon, and portions of eastern Washington and southwestern Idaho.

In the Sierras, these junipers often grow at higher elevation, 7, to 10, feet, and resemble small sequoias. The trees occupy rocky habitats where other conifers cannot gain a roothold. Long lived, western junipers may easily reach to 1, years old. This tree is estimated to be somewhere between 3, and 6, years old. Longevity is a verb for these trees. Sometimes western juniper fruits are fed to chickens to produce gin-flavored eggs. As western junipers mature, the reddish bark becomes thicker and stringier.

Similar to other junipers, western junipers do not attain a great height, but may average 40 feet tall. Trunks on older trees average 2 to 4 feet wide, but specimens up to 13 feet in diameter have been recorded. Common juniper bark is red-brown and peels off in thin, vertical strips. The fruit is a berry-like cone that evolves from green to glaucous to black as it ripens. The shrub and tree forms of common junipers are known as prostrate, weeping, creeping, and bushy.

Common juniper is of value for long-term land rehabilitation projects and is useful in preventing soil erosion. Common juniper provides important cover and browses for wildlife, especially mule deer. The cones are eaten by several species of songbirds and are an important food source for wild turkeys. Common junipers make excellent, vigorous landscaping shrubs, which are readily propagated by cuttings in the commercial nursery trade.

The juniper berry is also used as a flavoring for gin and some foods. Indeed, the juniper gets its name from the Dutch—who were early distillers of gin— genever , which means "gin," according to gynfoundry.

A hint of just how plentiful common junipers are can be found on ForrestryImages. The site includes more than 10, images of junipers found in North American and worldwide as of August The site also has images of dozens of pests that attack common junipers, including the flat grain beetle, sawtoothed grain beetle, and juniper bark borer. Common juniper is often killed by fire. It has been described as having minimal fire surviving regeneration properties, and resprouting after a fire is rare.

The foliage of junipers is resinous and flammable, which sustains and fuels fast-moving wildfires, which in turn quickly kill the plants.

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