Juniperus communis

Common juniper, Common Juniper

Family: Cupressaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Common juniper is a native shrub found in various mountain and alpine regions, often growing in rocky or open woodland habitats. Flowering during spring and summer, this plant produces small axillary pollen and seed cones with the female cones maturing from green to a distinctive bright blue or black color. Growing as a low, generally prostrate shrub less than one meter tall, it develops a characteristic brown bark that peels in papery sheets. Its leaves grow in distinctive whorls of three, appearing as short, awl-like needles that are suberect or spreading and arranged in a six-ranked pattern. The plant produces ovoid seeds two to five millimeters long that are generally three-angled, contributing to its unique botanical profile.

California counties: Los Angeles, Del Norte, Siskiyou, Plumas, Mono, Nevada, El Dorado, Alpine, Sierra, Placer, Trinity, Tuolumne, Modoc, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Shasta, Humboldt

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.