Utah Juniper

Utah junipers (left) have scale-like leaves when you look closely (top right). Female trees grow small, blue-ish "berries" that are modified cones, which house the developing seed (bottom right).

NPS Photos

 

Utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma)

Other Name: Cedar

Family: Cupressaceae (Cypress Family)

Description: may grow up to 9 m tall, although average height is 3-6 m. Seedling leaves are 5-10 mm long and needle-like in appearance. Mature leaves are 1-2 mm-long scales that hug the stems tightly. Bark is fibrous and often twisted. Cones are 8-13 mm in diameter and look like waxy, blue-brown berries 8-13 mm. This species is evergreen.

Range: occurs throughout the Rocky Mountain Region from Utah to Colorado, north to Montana, and south to New Mexico and Arizona. It grows throughout Colorado National Monument.

Did you know: the blue "berries" of the Utah Juniper are actually cones, making the Utah Juniper more closely related to a pine tree than to any true berry-producing plant. Various Native American groups in the desert west used Juniper "berries" medicinally, ceremonially, or secularly as beads. Today, we use the sour-tasting cones of the juniper to flavor gin (which fittingly derives its name from Dutch jenever, meaning "juniper").

This tree often grows near pinyon pine trees. See if you can identify the differences between these species!