Juniperus californica description

Berry and foliage [C.J. Earle].

Juniperus californica Carrière 1854

Common Names

California juniper, California white cedar, sweetberry cedar (3), huata, cedro (4).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Sabina californica (Carrière) Antoine (4).

Description

"Shrubs or trees dioecious (rarely monoecious), to 8 m, multistemmed (seldom single-stemmed); crown rounded. Bark gray, exfoliating in thin strips, that of smaller and larger branchlets smooth. Branches spreading to ascending; branchlets erect, terete, about as wide as length of scalelike leaves. Leaves light green, abaxial glands elliptic to ovate, conspicuous, exudate absent, margins denticulate (at 20´); whip leaves 3-5 mm, not glaucous adaxially; scalelike leaves 1-2 mm, not overlapping, or rarely overlapping by ca. 1/5 their length, generally flattened, apex acute to obtuse, closely appressed. Seed cones maturing in 1 year, of 1 size, with straight peduncles, globose, (7)9-10(13) mm, bluish brown, glaucous, fibrous, with 1(2) seeds. Seeds 5-7 mm" (4).

Range

USA: SW Oregon, W Nevada, California, W Arizona; Mexico: Baja California Norte (1), at 750-1600 m elevation on dry, rocky slopes and flats (4). Occurs with piñon (typically Pinus monophylla ) in woodlands and with Joshua-tree ( Yucca brevifolia ) in drier areas; as such, it is the most drought-tolerant juniper in the region (5). See also (7).

Big Tree

Diameter 76 cm, height 10 m, crown spread 12 m, located in Colusa County, CA (6).

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Seen at Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert of California, and near Tejon Pass along Interstate 5 N of Los Angeles.

Remarks

"Although two races, differing in volatile leaf oils, were described by Vasek and Scora (1967) and confirmed by Adams et al. (1983), no differences were found in volatile wood oils (Adams 1987). To date, no morphological characters appear to be correlated with the chemical races. No other Western Hemisphere species of Juniperus has been found to have leaf-oil races" (4).

Citations

(1) Silba 1986 .
(2) Jaeger 1969 .
(3) Peattie 1950 .
(4) Robert P. Adams at Flora of North America online .
(5) Little 1980 .
(6) American Forests 1996 .

(7) Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson and Patrick J. Bartlein. 1999. Atlas of Relations Between Climatic Parameters and Distributions of Important Trees and Shrubs in North America. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1650 A&B. URL= http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/ppapers/p1650-a/pages/conifers.html, accessed 22-Jan-2000.