Conifer Trees Database

Description. Common juniper is an evergreen coniferous shrub or small tree, with very variable structure, most often seen as a low, spreading shrub, but occasionally growing as a tree reaching mature heights of 30 feet (10 m) tall. This species is dioecious, with male and female cones on separate plants, which are wind pollinated.

• It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three; the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface.
• The seed cones are berry-like, and green in color when young, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue, waxy coating; they are spherical, each measuring 0.12 to 0.48 inch (4 - 12 mm) in diameter, and usually have three (occasionally six) fused scales, each scale with a single seed.
  
• The pollen cones are yellow, measuring 0.08 to 0.12 inch (2 - 3 mm) long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in March and April.
• The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard seeds in their droppings.
  

Distribution. As stated earlier, this species is the most widespread conifer in the world, native to temperate Eurasia, and North America N of Mexico, occupying an extraordinarily range of habitats.

Hardy to USDA Zone 3 - cold hardiness limit between -40° and -30°F (-39.9° and -34.4°C).