Persian juniper
| Persian juniper | ||||||||||||
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Persian juniper ( Juniperus polycarpos ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Juniperus polycarpos | ||||||||||||
| K. Koch |
The Persian juniper ( Juniperus polycarpos ) is a plant from the family of the cypress family (Cupressaceae). It occurs from east Turkey to north India, there is also an occurrence in Oman. The species is considered by some authors as a subspecies or variety of the Greek juniper ( Juniperus excelsa ).
description
The Persian juniper grows as an evergreen shrub or tree that can reach heights of 20 to 25 meters. The twigs are irregular on the branches, are 1 to 1.3 millimeters thick and usually have a square cross-section.
The leaves are 1.2 to 1.6 millimeters long and 0.8 to 0.9 millimeters wide. Their top is sometimes free-standing.
The mostly single berry cones are sessile and are usually spherical in shape with a diameter of up to 1.4 centimeters. When ripe they are purple-brown to black-purple in color. Each cone bears two to six seeds.
Distribution and location
The natural range of the Persian juniper extends from the Turkish provinces of Gümüşhane and Kahramanmaraş as well as the mountains around the valley of the Çoruh eastward over the Caucasus , along the Caspian Sea , the Kopet-Dag mountains over Afghanistan to the Tian Shan and the mountains of Kyrgyzstan in Northeast and as far as Quetta and the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the southeast. In Iran there are isolated occurrences in the western mountain ranges on plateaus in the desert. There is also an isolated population on al-Jabal al-Achdar in Oman .
The Persian juniper thrives at altitudes of 500 to 3800 meters with the eastern stocks growing at higher altitudes. The species often grows sporadically on stony or rocky mountain slopes. But it can also come to stock formation with Juniperus semiglobosa , Pistacia khinjuk and with the Atlantic pistachio ( Pistacia atlantica ). The species is considered to be very resistant to droughts and heat waves. It grows very slowly and there is hardly any rejuvenation in older stands.
Hazard and protection
The Persian juniper is not on the IUCN Red List .
Systematics
It was first described as Juniperus polycarpos in 1849 by Karl Heinrich Koch in Linnaea , volume 22, page 303. A synonym for Juniperus polycarpos K.Koch is Sabina polycarpos (K.Koch) Antoine . The species Juniperus polycarpos is considered by some authors as a subspecies or variety of the Greek juniper ( Juniperus excelsa ).
The species Juniperus polycarpos is divided into up to three varieties:
- Juniperus polycarpos K. Koch var. Polycarpos : It occurs from northeastern Turkey to northwestern Iran and also in northwestern Lebanon.
- Juniperus polycarpos var. Seravschanica (Kom.) Kitam. : It occurs in Afghanistan, South Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , East Turkmenistan , East Uzbekistan as well as in northern India and Pakistan. Synonyms are Juniperus macropoda Boiss. and Juniperus seravschanica Kom. According to WCSP, it is to be regarded as an independent species: Juniperus seravschanica Kom.
- Juniperus polycarpos var. Turcomanica (B.Fedtsch.) RPAdams : It occurs in northern and central Iran and southern and central Turkmenistan . A synonym is Juniperus turcomanica B.Fedtsch.
swell
- Christopher J. Earle: Juniperus excelsa. In: The Gymnosperm Database. www.conifers.org, November 23, 2012, accessed November 30, 2012 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Christopher J. Earle: Juniperus excelsa. In: The Gymnosperm Database. www.conifers.org, November 23, 2012, accessed November 30, 2012 .
- ↑ a b c d Juniperus polycarpos. In: Germplasm Resources Information Network. www.ars-grin.gov, accessed November 30, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Juniperus polycarpos at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed November 30, 2012.
- ↑ a b Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Juniperus. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved March 29, 2019.
