Foliage and cones (2).
Common Names
Needle juniper (1).Taxonomic notes
Two subspecies:Juniperus rigida subsp. rigida.
Juniperus rigida subsp. conferta .
Description
Dioecious evergreen shrub or small tree to 10 m tall, 45 cm dbh. Crown oval, conical or columnar. Bark thin and scaly, furrowed on old trees, red-brown, later gray. Branches ascending and branchlets pendulous. Shoots slender, triangular. Leaves dark green, needle-like, in whorls of 3, rigid, sharply pointed and prickly, 12-28 mm long, about 1 mm wide, with a narrow white band above. Fruit solitary, globose, 6-10 mm across, soft, rounded or elliptical, black-brown with a glaucous bloom and strong resinous odor, composed usually of 6 scales, ripening in the second year. Seeds 2-3 in each fruit, oblong or triangular, resinous. Pollination in June, seeds mature in August-October of the 3rd year (1, 2).Range
Japan, Korea, N China (Manchuria) (1). Locally common in Japan, China and Korea; rare in Russia: Southern Ussuriland, on limestone rocks and sandy seashores (2).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
In Russia, easy to see in Lazovsky Zapovednik (2).Remarks
Citations
(1) Vidakovic 1991 .(2) S. Harkevich and N. Kachura. 1981. Rare Plant Species of The Soviet Far East and Their Conservation. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian).
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/cu/ju/rigida.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:
earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 25-Jan-2000