Rocky Mountain juniper

Leaves

Form

• Scale leaves with a gland on the outer surface
• Successive pairs barely overlapping

Length

• Needle-shaped leaves about 12 mm

Colour

• Pale yellowish-green to whitish-green in summer and winter

Twigs

Form

• Leaf-covered twigs coarse

Colour

• Pale brown

Seed cones (mature)

Form

• Berry-like
• Fleshy, fragrant, powdery coating

Length

• 8 mm

Colour

• Blue with a white coating
  

Timing

• Ripen in the 2nd autumn, may persist another 2 years

Bark

Form

• Thin, fibrous
• Divided into flat-topped, interlacing, persistent shreds

Colour

• Reddish- or greyish-brown

Wood

Texture

• Moderately heavy and hard, weak
• Strongly aromatic
• Heartwood resistant to decay

Colour

• Heartwood reddish-brown, often streaked with white
• Sapwood nearly white

Size

Height

• To 10 m, occasionally 25 m
• The largest native juniper

Diameter

• To 30 cm, occasionally 90 cm

Tree form

Open-grown

Trunk

• Often forked

Crown

• Irregularly conical, coarsely branched
• Lower branches long, ascending, originating near the base
• Upper branches short, partly horizontal and partly ascending

Forest-grown

Trunk

• Dead branches often persist on the trunk

Crown

• Slender, branches often drooping

Habitat

Site

• Usually on mountains, but also found near sea level in the coastal forest
• Dry rocky ridges or sandy soils

Light tolerance

• Full sun

Associated species

• In pure but open stands, or as a shrub layer under other species such as Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine

Range

A western species