↑ arvau

Wikipedia / Juniperus excelsa

Juniperus excelsa, commonly called the Greek juniper, is a juniper found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece, Macedonia and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and Lebanon, Jordan, the Caucasus mountains, and the southern coast of Crimea.

A subspecies, J. excelsa subsp. polycarpos, known as the Persian juniper, occurs in the Alborz and other mountains of Iran east to northwestern Pakistan, and an isolated population in the Jebal Akhdar mountains of Oman; some botanists treat this as a distinct species, Juniperus polycarpos.

Description

Juniperus excelsa is a large shrub or tree reaching tall, rarely . It has a trunk up to in diameter, and a broadly conical to rounded or irregular crown. The leaves are of two forms, juvenile needle-like leaves long on seedlings, and adult scale-leaves 0.6–3mm long on older plants.

It is largely dioecious with separate male and female plants, but some individual plants produce both sexes. The cones are berry-like, 6–11mm in diameter, blue-black with a whitish waxy bloom, and contain 3-6 seeds; they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 3–4mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring.

It often occurs together with Juniperus foetidissima, being distinguished from it by its slenderer shoots 0.7–1.3mm diameter (1.2–2mm diameter in J. foetidissima), and grey-green, rather than mid green, leaves.

The Algum wood mentioned in the Bible may be from this species, but is not definitely so.

Gallery

References

  • Adams, R. P. (2004). Junipers of the World: The genus Juniperus. Victoria: Trafford. .

  • Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. .

  • photo of tree in southwest Turkey