California juniper

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California juniper
Juniperus californica JumboRocks.jpg

California Juniper ( Juniperus californica )

Systematics
Order : Conifers (Coniferales)
Family : Cypress family (Cupressaceae)
Subfamily : Cupressoideae
Genre : Juniper ( Juniperus )
Section : Sabina
Type : California juniper
Scientific name
Juniperus californica
Carr.

The California juniper ( Juniperus californica ) is a plant from the family of the cypress family ( Cupressaceae ).

description

Habit and bark

Shrub shape

Depending on the site conditions, the California juniper grows as an evergreen tree or as a shrub . As a tree, it reaches heights of growth of a maximum of 12 meters and usually has a straight trunk, which, however, has an irregular cross-section. It reaches chest height diameters of 30 to 60 centimeters and has a conical crown with widely spreading branches. The more common shrub form has several strong, irregularly shaped and mostly twisted stems. It has a broad and open crown. The maximum service life is estimated at around 250 years.

Young twigs have light, ash-gray, thin and scaly bark . The relatively thin and ash-gray colored bark of the old trees has red-brown deeper layers and it comes off in long, loose and fibrous strips.

Wood

The light brown and somewhat reddish tinted heartwood is surrounded by a narrow, almost white sapwood . The wood is soft, has dense fibers and smells aromatic. It is easy to split and relatively brittle. It is permanent even when it comes into contact with the ground.

leaves

Young trees differ from old trees in terms of needling. The needles of the young trees are stiff and linear-lanceolate in shape. They are between 0.6 and 1.2 inches long and are sharply pointed. The top of the needle is whitish in color. The needles of the old trees are thicker and scale-shaped. They are weakly keeled and close to the branch. The yellowish-green needles have thickened cartilaginous edges and are between 1.5 and 3 millimeters long. After 2 to 3 years they turn brown and fall off.

Flowers, cones and seeds

Branches with unripe berry cones

The Californian juniper is dioeciously segregated ( dioecious ). The male flowers have 18 to 20 stamens, which are arranged in groups of three. The greenish female cones have six pointed scaly leaves that later become fleshy and grow into a berry cone. Each of the scale sheets has one or two ovules . The flowers appear in spring and reach their full size in summer. The seeds ripen the following summer. The egg-shaped berry cones are 1.2 to 1.8 inches long and 0.6 to 1.2 inches wide. They are initially bluish and have a wax layer . As it ripens, the thin epidermis turns brown. The “pulp” of the edible berry cones is dry when ripe, fibrous and floury, has a sweet taste and is resin-free. Each of the berry cones contains one or two wingless seeds. The seeds, which are more or less egg-shaped with 0.6 to 1.2 centimeters, are somewhat angular and have a grooved surface. The seeds are spread by birds ( ornithochory ).

Distribution and location

Distribution area

The distribution area of ​​the California juniper includes California as well as smaller isolated stocks in southern Nevada and western Arizona . Its range is divided into many individual occurrences in California. It extends from the Shasta County in northern California into northern Baja California in the Mexican state of Baja California and this offshore islands Guadalupe and Cedros Island . It occurs even in the Mojave Desert , where the largest tree-shaped specimens are said to grow.

The California juniper is one of the few woody plants that colonize extremely hot and dry locations, especially semi-deserts . It occurs at altitudes of 120 to 2,000 meters. An accompanying tree species of are seeded juniper ( Juniperus monosperma ), the Utah juniper ( Juniperus osteosperma ), the Mexican Pinyon Pine ( Pinus cembroides ), the Pinus monophylla ( Pinus monophylla ) and various Yucca TYPES like the Yucca brevifolia or Joshua Tree ( Yucca brevifolia ) called.

use

The California juniper is hardly used economically. On the east side of the southern Coast Ranges and in Joshua Tree National Park near Palm Springs , it represents an important protection against erosion from the few but heavy rains. Indians eat the raw berry cones or bake them as flour . The wood is used as fuel and for making fence posts. An essential oil is seldom extracted from the heartwood .

Systematics

The description of the species Juniperus californica by the French botanist Élie-Abel Carrière was published in 1854. The California juniper is within the genus juniper ( Juniperus belonging to the subgenus) Sabina , and in the section Pachyphlaeoides assigned. The species in this section are distinguished by their finely toothed leaves and ripe berry cones, which are not blue in color. The alligator juniper ( Juniperus deppeana ), Juniperus flaccida and Juniperus pinchotii are named as closely related species . In other sources, the sub-genus Sabina is defined as a section that shows no further subdivision. A synonym for Juniperus californica Carr. is Sabina californica ( Carr. ) Ant. .

Hazards and protective measures

The Californian juniper is listed on the Red List of Endangered Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ), but is designated as “Least Concern”. This decision is justified by the fact that the species is widespread in the drier habitats of California and the population is stable. There are exceptions such as isolated subpopulations, particularly on Guadalupe and Cedros in Baja California (although the population on Guadalupe can recover after there are no goats there), but these were too small to influence the global assessment as not endangered.

The state of Nevada in the United States of America regards the California juniper as an endangered and therefore protected species.

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literature

  • Peter Schütt, Horst Weisgerber, Hans J. Schuck, Ulla Lang, Bernd Stimm, Andreas Roloff: Lexicon of Conifers. Distribution - Description - Ecology - Use; the great encyclopedia . Nikol, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-933203-80-5 , p. 205-208 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Élie-Abel Carrière: Description d'une nouvelle espèce de Genévrier, Juniperus californica Carr. In Revue Horticole (Paris), Volume 4, Number 3, 1854, pp. 352–353 preview in Google Book Search
  2. Juniperus californica in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2013. Posted by: A. Farjon, 2011. Accessed July 17, 2020th

Web links

Commons : Californian Juniper ( Juniperus californica )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files