Rocky Mountain juniper
Juniperus scopulorum
Summary 7
Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper) is a species of juniper native to western North America, in Canada in British Columbia and southwest Alberta, in the United States from Washington east to North Dakota, south to Arizona and also locally western Texas, and northernmost Mexico from Sonora east to Coahuila. It grows at altitudes of 500–2,700 metres (1,600–8,900 ft) on dry soils, often together with other juniper species. "Scopulorum" means "of the mountains.
Description 8
It is a small tree reaching 5-15 m (rarely to 20 m) tall, with a trunk up to 1 m (rarely 2 m) diameter. The shoots are slender, 0.7–1.2 millimetres (0.028–0.047 in) diameter. The leaves are arranged in opposite decussate pairs, or occasionally in whorls of three; the adult leaves are scale-like, 1–3 mm long (to 5 mm on lead shoots) and 1–1.5 millimetres (0.039–0.059 in) broad. The juvenile leaves (on young seedlings only) are needle-like, 5–10 mm long. The seed cones are berry-like, globose to bilobed, 6–9 millimetres (0.24–0.35 in) in diameter, dark blue with a pale blue-white waxy bloom, and contain two seeds (rarely one or three); they are mature in about 18 months and are eaten by wildlife. The pollen cones are 2–4 millimetres (0.079–0.157 in) long, and shed their pollen in early spring. It is dioecious, producing cones of only one sex on each tree.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Christopher J. Earle, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Christopher J. Earle
- (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://eol.org/media/9349216
- (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://eol.org/media/9349214
- (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://eol.org/media/6634234
- (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://eol.org/media/6634235
- (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://eol.org/media/7862546
- Adapted by Keri Pidgen-Welyki from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_scopulorum
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_scopulorum
More Info
- iNaturalist.ca taxon page
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- Calflora
- CalPhotos
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- Jepson eFlora
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- OregonFlora.org
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- VASCAN by Canadensys
- World Flora Online
