Juniperus VIRGINIANA - Eastern redcedar, Virginian juniper, Juniperus virginiana.
Juniper is a genus of evergreen plants in the cypress family (Cupressaceae), growing in the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and North America. In nature, the plant is found in mixed and pine forest belts, mountain slopes, or pastures. The genus comprises about 70 species growing in the Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic to tropical mountains. The average lifespan reaches 300 years.
These are evergreen coniferous dioecious or monoecious trees up to 10-15 m (33-49 ft) tall. Junipers are characterized by cone-shaped crowns. The foliage is scale-like, pointed, and needle-like. Pollination occurs in March-April, and seeds mature in the autumn of the following year.
At 4-5 years of age, the plant begins to bear fruit. The juniper produces scarlet-black berry-like cones up to 10 mm (0.4 in) in diameter with a glaucous sheen. Initially, small scales appear at the tips of lateral branches. A year later, they turn into green cones, then into dark-colored fruits with a glaucous bloom. Each contains up to 10 seeds, which are dispersed by birds.
Eastern redcedar is the largest species, reaching 10-12 m (33-39 ft) in height. It can be unisexual, but more often male and female cones are found on the same plant. A medium-sized tree, it has a pyramidal crown ranging from glaucous-green to greenish-brown. In older plants, the trunk is widened from the base, covered with thin reddish or grayish-brown bark that easily peels in narrow strips.
Shoots are gray, slender, up to 1 mm (0.04 in) thick. The needles are of two types: young plants and heavily shaded non-bearing branches are covered with small, sharp, linear-lanceolate needle foliage 1-1.5 cm (0.4-0.6 in) long; in mature plants, the foliage is scale-like and imbricate, pressed tightly to the shoot, with individual scales arranged in 4 rows, giving the slender shoots a four-angled shape. The backs of the scales are rounded, dark green with an oblong gland.
When crushed, the needles emit a characteristic pungent aroma. Cones are resinous, bright bluish-green, 0.4-0.8 cm (0.16-0.31 in) across, turning dark blue-violet when mature with a glaucous bloom, containing 1-2 seeds, possessing sweetish pulp, maturing in the year of flowering, composed of 4 fused scales; the seeds are smooth and small.