Juniperus flaccida

Juniperus flaccida
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Cupressaceae
Genus: Juniperus
Species: J. flaccida
Binomial name
Juniperus flaccida
Schltdl.
Natural range of Juniperus flaccida

Juniperus flaccida (drooping juniper, weeping juniper or Mexican juniper; Native American names include tláscal) is a large shrub or small tree reaching 5-10 m (rarely to 15 m) tall. It is native to central and northern Mexico (from Oaxaca northward) and the extreme southwest of Texas, United States (Brewster County). It grows at moderate altitudes of 800-2,600 m, on dry soils.

The bark is brown, with stringy vertical fissuring. The shoots are strongly pendulous, 1-1.2 mm diameter, and often borne in flattened sprays (the only juniper commonly showing this character). The leaves are arranged in opposite decussate pairs; the adult leaves are scale-like, 2-4 mm long (to 7 mm on lead shoots) and 1-1.5 mm broad. The juvenile leaves (on young seedlings only) are needle-like, 5-10 mm long. The cones are berry-like, 8-20 mm in diameter, green maturing brown, and contain 6-12 seeds (the most seeds per cone of any juniper); they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 3-5 mm long, and shed their pollen in spring. It is largely dioecious, producing cones of only one sex on each tree.

There are three varieties, not accepted as distinct by all authorities:

References and external links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Juniperus flaccida.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 27, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.