Plantae > Tracheophyta > Pinopsida > Pinales > Cupressaceae > Juniperus > Juniperus communis

Juniperus communis (Common Juniper)

Synonyms:
Language: Chi; Cze; Dan; Dut; Fre; Ger; Hrv, Srp; Hun; Nor; Pol; Rus; Spa; Swe; Tur

Wikipedia Abstract

Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of conifer in the genus Juniperus, in the family Cupressaceae. It has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30°N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia. Relict populations can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Africa.
View Wikipedia Record: Juniperus communis

Infraspecies

Juniperus communis guadarramica
Juniperus communis var. communis (Attributes)
Juniperus communis var. depressa (Dwarf Juniper)
Juniperus communis var. kelleyi
Juniperus communis var. megistocarpa (common juniper) (Attributes)
Juniperus communis var. nipponica
Juniperus communis var. saxatilis (Mountain Juniper) (Attributes)

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Mid Spring
Dispersal Mode [5]  Autochory, Endozoochory
Drought Tolerance [1]  High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [1]  Low
Flower Type [2]  Dioecious
Frost Free Days [1]  90 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Fall
Growth Form [1]  Single Stem
Growth Period [1]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [1]  Slow
Hazards [2]  Although the fruit of this plant is quite often used medicinally and as a flavouring in various foods and drinks, large doses of the fruit can cause renal damage. Juniper should not be used internally in any quantities by pregnant women;
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Propagation [1]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [1]  14 inches (36 cm)
Scent [2]  All parts of the plant are very fragrant.
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Slow
Seed Vigor [1]  Low
Seeds Per [1]  40363 / lb (88985 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Semi-Erect
Specific Gravity [6]  0.517
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  A decoction of the branches is used as an anti-dandruff shampoo; The essential oil distilled from the fruits is used in perfumes with spicy fragrances; In hot countries the tree yields the resin 'Sandarac' from incisions in the trunk; This is used in the production of a white varnish; The stems were at one time used as a strewing herb to sweeten the smell of rooms; The whole plant can be burnt as an incense and fumigant; It was used during epidemics in the belief that it would purify the air and cleanse it of infection; Fresh or dried juniper branches also make a good insect repellent; Many forms of this species are good ground cover plants for sunny situations; Forms to try include 'Depressa Aurea', 'Dumosa', 'Effusa', and 'Repanda'; 'Prostrata' can also be used; The bark is used as cordage; Wood - strong, hard, fragrant, very durable in contact with the soil and very close-grained, but usually too small to be of much use; It makes an excellent fuel;
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Yellow
Foliage Color [1]  Green
Fruit Color [1]  Blue
Fruit Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Height [2]  30 feet (9 m)
Width [2]  13.12 feet (4 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 2 Low Temperature: -50 F° (-45.6 C°) → -40 F° (-40 C°)
Light Preference [4]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [4]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [4]  Mostly Infertile
Soil Moisture [4]  Moist
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Dense
Screening - Winter [1]  Dense
View Plants For A Future Record : Juniperus communis

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

Mutual (symbiont) 
Leucocortinarius bulbiger (White Webcap)[11]
Parasitized by 
Didymascella tetraspora[11]
Gymnosporangium cornutum[11]
Seynesiella juniperi[11]

Range Map

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Leaflet | © OpenStreetMap contributors

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3PLANTATT - Attributes of British and Irish Plants: Status, Size, Life History, Geography and Habitats, M. O. Hill, C. D. Preston & D. B. Roy, Biological Records Centre, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (2004)
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Paula S, Arianoutsou M, Kazanis D, Tavsanoglu Ç, Lloret F, Buhk C, Ojeda F, Luna B, Moreno JM, Rodrigo A, Espelta JM, Palacio S, Fernández-Santos B, Fernandes PM, and Pausas JG. 2009. Fire-related traits for plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. Ecology 90: 1420.
Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2013. BROT: a plant trait database for Mediterranean Basin species. Version 2013.06.
♦ 6Chave J, Coomes D, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Swenson NG, Zanne AE (2009) Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Ecology Letters 12: 351-366. Zanne AE, Lopez-Gonzalez G, Coomes DA, Ilic J, Jansen S, Lewis SL, Miller RB, Swenson NG, Wiemann MC, Chave J (2009) Data from: Towards a worldwide wood economics spectrum. Dryad Digital Repository.
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 9Ecology of Commanster
♦ 10Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 11Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 12New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 13del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 14Geographical ecology and variation of plant-seed disperser interactions: southern Spanish junipers and frugivorous thrushes, Pedro Jordano, Vegetatio 107/108: 85-104, 1993.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0