A tree, often 50°—60° high, with a short trunk 3°—5° in diameter, long stout spreading branches forming a broad-based pyramidal or ultimately a compact round-topped head, and slender branchlets covered after the disappearance of the leaves with thin light red-brown usually smooth close bark occasionally broken into large thin scales. Bark ¾′—4′ thick, on young stems reddish brown becoming on old trunks whitish, deeply fissured and divided into nearly square plates 1′—2′ long, and separating on the surface into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, close-grained, clear light red often streaked with yellow, with thin nearly white sapwood; often producing vigorous shoots from the base of the trunk or from the stumps of felled trees.
Distribution. Dry arid mountain slopes usually at elevations of 4000°—6000° above the sea, from the Eagle and Limpio mountains in southwestern Texas, westward along the desert ranges of New Mexico and Arizona, extending northward to the lower slopes of many of the high mountains of northern Arizona, and southward into Mexico.
7. [Juniperus occidentalis] Hook. Juniper.
Leaves opposite or ternate, closely appressed, acute or acuminate, rounded and conspicuously glandular on the back, denticulately fringed, gray-green, about ⅛′ long. Flowers: male stout, obtuse, with 12—18 stamens, their connectives broadly ovoid, rounded, acute or apiculate and scarious or slightly ciliate on the margins: scales of the female flower ovate, acute, spreading, mostly obliterated from the fruit. Fruit subglobose or short-oblong, ¼′—⅓′ in diameter, with a thick firm blue-black skin coated with a glaucous bloom, thin dry flesh filled with large resin-glands, and 2 or 3 seeds; seeds ovoid, acute, rounded and deeply grooved or pitted on the back, flattened on the inner surface, about ⅛′ long, with a thick bony shell, a thin brown inner seed-coat, and 2 cotyledons.
A tree, occasionally 60° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° in diameter, more often not more than 20° in height, with a short trunk sometimes 10° in diameter, enormous branches, spreading at nearly right angles and forming a broad low head, and stout branchlets covered after the leaves fall with thin bright red-brown bark broken into loose papery scales; frequently when growing on dry rocky slopes and toward the northern limits of its range a shrub, with many short erect or semiprostrate stems. Bark about ½′ thick, bright cinnamon-red, divided by broad shallow fissures into wide flat irregularly connected ridges separating on the surface into thin lustrous scales. Wood light, soft, very close-grained, exceedingly durable, light red or brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; used for fencing and fuel. The fruit is gathered and eaten by the California Indians.
Distribution. Mountain slopes and high prairies of western Idaho and of eastern Washington to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains; eastern and southern Oregon up to altitudes of 4500°; along the summits and upper slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California, and southward to the San Bernardino Mountains, here abundant in Bear and Holcomb valleys; attaining its greatest trunk diameter on the wind-swept peaks of the California sierras, usually at altitudes between 6000° and 10,000° above the sea.
8. [Juniperus monosperma] Sarg. Juniper.
Leaves opposite or ternate, often slightly spreading at apex, acute or occasionally acuminate, much thickened and rounded on the back, usually glandular, denticulately fringed, gray-green, rather less than ⅛′ long, turning bright red-brown before falling; on vigorous shoots and young plants ovate, acute, tipped with long rigid points, thin, conspicuously glandular on the back, often ½′ long. Flowers: male with 8—10 stamens, their broadly ovate, rounded or pointed connectives slightly erose on the margins: female with spreading pointed scales. Fruit subglobose or short-oblong, ⅛′—¼′ long, dark blue or perhaps occasionally light chestnut-brown with a thick firm skin covered with a thin glaucous bloom, thin flesh, and 1 or rarely 2 seeds; seeds often protruding from the top of the fruit, ovoid, often 4-angled, somewhat obtuse at apex, with a small hilum, and 2 cotyledons.