Juniperus procera

Last updated

Juniperus procera
Juniperus procera Kenya1.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnospermae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Cupressales
Family: Cupressaceae
Genus: Juniperus
Section: Juniperus sect. Sabina
Species:
J. procera
Binomial name
Juniperus procera
Synonyms [3]
  • Juniperus abyssinica K.Koch
  • J. hochstetteri Antoine
  • Sabina procera(Hochst. ex Endl.) Antoine

Juniperus procera (known by the common English names African juniper, African pencil-cedar, East African juniper, East African-cedar, and Kenya-cedar) [4] is a coniferous tree native to mountainous areas in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is a characteristic tree of the Afromontane flora.

Contents

Description

Juniperus procera is a medium-sized tree reaching 20–25 metres (66–82 feet) (rarely 40 m or 130 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 1.5–2 m (5–6+12 ft) diameter and a broadly conical to rounded or irregular crown. The leaves are of two forms, juvenile needle-like leaves 8–15 millimetres (3858 in) long on seedlings, and adult scale-leaves 0.5–3 mm long on older plants, arranged in decussate pairs or whorls of three. It is largely dioecious with separate male and female plants, but some individual plants produce both sexes. The cones are berry-like, 4–8 mm in diameter, blue-black with a whitish waxy bloom, and contain 2–5 seeds; they mature in 12–18 months. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring. [5]

Distribution

Juniperus procera is native to the Arabian Peninsula (in Saudi Arabia and Yemen), and northeastern, eastern, west-central, and south tropical Africa (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). [4]

It is the only juniper to occur south of the equator, and is thought to be a relatively recent colonist of Africa; the species shows very little of the variability associated with a long period of evolution. [6] It is closely related to Juniperus excelsa from southwestern Asia, probably deriving from a common ancestor with that species in southwestern Asia.[ citation needed ]

Taxonomy

According to Tropicos, Juniperus procera was originally described and published in Synopsis Coniferarum 1847. The type specimen was collected from Ethiopia, by "Schimper" (possibly Wilhelm Philipp Schimper, but there were other contemporary collectors with this surname). [2] [7]

Uses

It is an important timber tree, used for building houses, poles, and furniture. The bark is used for beehives. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juniper</span> Genus of plants

Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa, throughout parts of western, central and southern Asia, east to eastern Tibet in the Old World, and in the mountains of Central America. The highest-known juniper forest occurs at an altitude of 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) in southeastern Tibet and the northern Himalayas, creating one of the highest tree lines on earth.

<i>Juniperus virginiana</i> Species of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae

Juniperus virginiana, also known as eastern redcedar, red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains. Further west it is replaced by the related Juniperus scopulorum and to the southwest by Juniperus ashei. It is not to be confused with Thuja occidentalis.

<i>Juniperus chinensis</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus chinensis, the Chinese juniper is a species of plant in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to China, Myanmar, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. Growing 1–20 metres tall, it is a very variable coniferous evergreen tree or shrub.

<i>Juniperus oxycedrus</i> Species of plant

Juniperus oxycedrus, vernacularly called Cade, cade juniper, prickly juniper, prickly cedar, or sharp cedar, is a species of juniper, native across the Mediterranean region, growing on a variety of rocky sites from sea level. The specific epithet oxycedrus means "sharp cedar" and this species may have been the original cedar or cedrus of the ancient Greeks.

<i>Microbiota decussata</i> Species of plant

Microbiota is a monotypic genus of evergreen coniferous shrubs in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Microbiota decussata. The plant is native and endemic to a limited area of the Sikhote-Alin mountains in Primorskiy Krai in the Russian Far East. Microbiota is not to be confused with the range of microorganisms of the same name. The genus name was derived from micro-, meaning "small", + Biota, the genus name for a closely related conifer, a species formerly called Biota orientalis, now renamed Platycladus orientalis.

<i>Juniperus excelsa</i> Species of conifer

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

<i>Juniperus scopulorum</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus scopulorum, the Rocky Mountain juniper, is a species of juniper native to western North America, from southwest Canada to the Great Plains of the United States.

<i>Juniperus horizontalis</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus horizontalis, the creeping juniper or creeping cedar, is a low-growing shrubby juniper native to northern North America, throughout most of Canada from Yukon east to Newfoundland, and in some of the northern United States.

<i>Juniperus sabina</i> Species of Juniper

Juniperus sabina, the savin juniper or savin, is a species of juniper native to the mountains of central and southern Europe and western and central Asia, from Spain to eastern Siberia, typically growing at altitudes of 1,000–3,300 metres.

<i>Juniperus thurifera</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus thurifera is a species of juniper native to the mountains of the western Mediterranean region, from southern France across eastern and central Spain to Morocco and locally in northern Algeria.

<i>Juniperus recurva</i> Species of juniper

Juniperus recurva, commonly named the Himalayan juniper or drooping juniper, is a juniper native to the Himalaya, from northern Pakistan, through India, Nepal and Bhutan, to western Yunnan in southwestern China. It grows at altitudes of 3,000–4,000 metres.

<i>Juniperus squamata</i> Species of Juniper

Juniperus squamata, the flaky juniper, or Himalayan juniper is a species of coniferous shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to the Himalayas and China.

<i>Juniperus foetidissima</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus foetidissima, with common names foetid juniper or stinking juniper, is a juniper tree species in the family Cupressaceae.

<i>Juniperus pinchotii</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus pinchotii, commonly known as Pinchot juniper or redberry juniper, is a species of juniper native to south-western North America, in Mexico: Nuevo León and Coahuila, and in the United States: south-eastern New Mexico, central Texas, and western Oklahoma.

<i>Juniperus pseudosabina</i> Species of juniper

Juniperus pseudosabina, the Turkestan juniper or dwarf black juniper is a species of juniper.

<i>Juniperus rigida</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus rigida, the temple juniper, is a species of juniper, native to northern China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and the far southeast of Russia, occurring at altitudes of 10–2,200 metres (33–7,218 ft). The species is also naturalized in the United States. It is closely related to Juniperus communis and Juniperus conferta, the latter sometimes treated as a variety or subspecies of J. rigida.

<i>Juniperus semiglobosa</i> Species of juniper

Juniperus semiglobosa, the Himalayan pencil juniper, is a species of juniper native to the mountains of Central Asia, in northeastern Afghanistan, westernmost China (Xinjiang), northern Pakistan, southeastern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, western Nepal, northern India, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It grows at altitudes of 1,550–4,420 metres.

<i>Juniperus standleyi</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus standleyi is a species of juniper native to Guatemala and the adjacent extreme southeast of Mexico, where it occurs at elevations of 3,000–4,250 metres. Its local common names include huitó, cipres, and huitum.

<i>Juniperus tibetica</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus tibetica, the Tibetan juniper, is a species of juniper, native to western China in southern Gansu, southeastern Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet Autonomous Region, where it grows at high to very high altitudes of 2,600–4,900 metres. This species has the highest known elevation treeline in the northern hemisphere.

<i>Cassipourea malosana</i> Species of flowering plant

Cassipourea malosana is a species of plant native to tropical Africa.

References

  1. Farjon, A. (2013). "Juniperus procera". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2013: e.T33217A2835242. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T33217A2835242.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Name – Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl". Tropicos. Saint Louis, Missouri: Missouri Botanical Garden . Retrieved March 1, 2013. Type-Protologue: Locality: ETHIOPIA: Semen, Adda Mariam near Enschedcap: Collector: Schimper
  3. "TPL, treatment of Juniperus procera". The Plant List; Version 1. (published on the internet). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden. 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Juniperus procera". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved March 1, 2013.
  5. (Page archived by the Wayback Machine). Christopher J. Earle (April 14, 2009). "The Gymnosperm Database – Juniperus procera". Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN   1-84246-068-4.
  7. Original description by Stephano Endlicher (1847). "Synopsis Coniferarum" (in Latin). Sangalli [together with] Scheitlin & Zollikofer. p. 26. Retrieved March 1, 2013. Schimper Herb. Abyssin. II. n. 537
  8. "Inmagic DB/Text WebPublisher PRO: 1 records". Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2022-07-11.

Further reading