Virginia juniper (Juniperus virginiana)
Appearance: Evergreen, a dioecious tree with a crown, usually slender, columnar or conical, Height to 30 m, but usually much less.
The bark is also reddish-brown on older trees, it peels off and falls off in narrow longitudinal strands,
Branches with leaves of two kinds.
Pincers leaves, placed only at the ends of the twigs, have about 5 mm in length, they are equilibrium, very spicy, with a light longitudinal stripe on top, solid green underneath.
Scale leaves only have 1,5 mm in length, on the front they are blunt or slender, slightly protruding end.
Male flowers grow singly at the ends of twigs; they are yellowish,
Female cones up to 6 mm, they are oval-roundish. violet-brown when ripe. All parts have a characteristic smell of soap or paint. Occurrence: The juniper is native to the eastern part of North America; in the Mediterranean it is grown as a forest tree. Apart from that, this species – in various garden forms – it is planted as an ornamental tree.
Flowering period: March to April.
General thoughts: Virginia juniper wood is mostly used to make pencils ('Pencil cedar”) and cigar boxes.
Related species. There are many other species of the genus Juniperus in the Mediterranean area, which, however, are less often cultivated. Greek juniper (Juniper exce!on) is a tree up to approx 20 m, with a round or spherical vaulted crown. The twigs are four-crowned or rounded. Leaves in the form of pins appear only at the ends of the shoots, besides, there are only scaly leaves. The latter have sharply tapered ends and two distinct ones, brighter longitudinal stripes, fit tightly to small twigs. Their length slightly exceeds 1 millimeter. When mature, female cones are approx 8 mm, they are spherical, purple-brown and waxy frosting. Originally, this species was found in the wild only in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, It is rarely planted outside its natural range,
On the other hand, Phoenician juniper is found more often (Juniperus phoenicea) – as a shrub or small tree in a macaque formation – dry scrub typical of the Mediterranean area. Height up to approx 8 m, not infrequently twisted, sloping or slanting trunk. The branches are rather slender. Pin-shaped leaves are found only on young shoots, Older twigs are covered with diamond-shaped outline, vaguely pointed scaly leaves approx 1 mm, which are slightly irregularly facing the cross and fit very closely to the tiny twigs. Female cones are approx 1 cm wide, they are spherical or slightly oval in shape, purple or bluish green when ripe. Phoenician juniper is windproof, therefore it can be found in protective plantings along the coast, Less commonly used as an ornamental tree, General thoughts: Two features are particularly noticeable in the species-rich genus Juniperus, which are absent in other types of the stiletto class. Firstly, this genus is characterized by peculiar cones, often falsely referred to as "berries”, in which the scales do not become woody (as usual), but they become fleshy. These phylogenetically derived pieces from cones and cannot be referred to as berries or fruit. The correct term is "jagodoszyszki”. Secondly, only in species of this genus there are two types of leaves: next to the stiletto leaves known from native juniper, scale leaves are also present on the same plant, rather typical of cypresses,