Juniperus californica


Juniperus californica, the California juniper, is a species of juniper native to southwestern North America.

Distribution

As the name implies, it is mainly in numerous California habitats, although its range also extends through most of Baja California, a short distance into the Great Basin in southern Nevada, and into northwestern Arizona. In California it is found in: the Peninsular Ranges, Transverse Ranges, California Coast Ranges, Sacramento Valley foothills, Sierra Nevada, and at higher elevation sky islands in the Mojave Desert ranges.
It grows at moderate altitudes of. Habitats include: pinyon-juniper woodland with single-leaf pinyon ; Joshua tree woodland; and foothill woodlands, in the montane chaparral and woodlands and interior chaparral and woodlands sub-ecoregions.

Description

Juniperus californica is a shrub or small tree reaching, but rarely up to tall. The bark is ashy gray, typically thin, and appears to be "shredded". The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, between in diameter.
Foliage is bluish gray and scale-like. The leaves are arranged in opposite decussate pairs or whorls of three; the adult leaves are scale-like, long on lead shoots and broad. The juvenile leaves are needle-like and are long.
The cones are berry-like, in diameter, blue brown with a whitish waxy bloom, turning reddish brown, and contain a single seed. The seeds are mature in about 8 or 9 months. The male cones are long, and shed their pollen in early spring. This juniper is largely dioecious, producing cones of only one sex, but around 2% of plants are monoecious, with both sexes on the same plant.
The California juniper is closely related to Juniperus osteosperma from further east, which shares the stout shoots and relatively large cones, but differs in that Utah juniper is largely monoecious. Also, its cones take longer to mature, and it is also markedly more cold tolerant.

Uses

Juniperus californica provides food and shelter for a variety of native ground and avian wildlife. It is a larval host for the native moth sequoia sphinx.

Native Americans

The plant was used as a traditional Native American medicinal plant, and as a food source, by the indigenous peoples of California, including the Cahuilla people, Kumeyaay people, and Ohlone people. They gathered the berries to eat fresh and to grind into meal for baking.

Cultivation

Juniperus californica is cultivated as an ornamental plant, as a dense shrub for use in habitat gardens, heat and drought-tolerant gardens, and in natural landscaping design. It is very tolerant of alkali soils, and can provide erosion control on dry slopes. California Juniper is also a popular species for bonsai.
;Conservation
An IUCN least concern listed species, and not considered globally threatened currently. However, one of the southernmost populations, formerly on Guadalupe Island off the Baja California Peninsula coast, was destroyed by feral goats in the late 19th century.