Juniperus procumbens

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Juniperus procumbens
Juniperus procumbens nana MN 2007.JPG
Plant of cultivar 'Nana'
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. procumbens
Binomial name
Juniperus procumbens

Juniperus procumbens is a species of shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to Japan. This low-growing evergreen conifer is closely related to the Chinese juniper, Juniperus chinensis , and is sometimes treated as a variety of it, as J. chinensis var. procumbens. [2] [3]

Contents

Description

It is a prostrate shrub, usually growing 20–30 centimetres (8–12 inches) tall, occasionally 50 cm (20 in); while it does not get very tall it can get quite wide, 2–4 metres (6+12–13 ft) across or more, with long prostrate branches. The branches tend to intertwine and form a dense mat. The leaves are arranged in decussate whorls of three; all the leaves are juvenile form, needle-like, 6–8 millimetres (14516 in) long and 1–1.5 mm broad, with two white stomatal bands on the inner face. It is dioecious with separate male and female plants. The cones are berry-like, globose, 8–9 mm in diameter, dark blackish-brown with a pale blue-white waxy bloom, and contain two or three seeds (rarely one); they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 3–4 mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring. It produces cones of only one sex on each plant. [2] [3] [4]

Distribution

The status of Juniperus procumbens as a wild plant is disputed. Some authorities treat it as endemic to high mountains on Kyūshū and a few other islands off southern Japan, [2] while others consider it native to the coasts of southern Japan (north to Chiba Prefecture) and also the southern and western coasts of Korea. [3] [ self-published source ]

Cultivation and uses

Juniperus procumbens being trained as a bonsai. Its contorted trunk lines add interest and drama to the artistic composition. Juniperus procumbens.jpg
Juniperus procumbens being trained as a bonsai. Its contorted trunk lines add interest and drama to the artistic composition.
A bonsai specimen of 'Nana' Bonsai Juniperus procumbens.jpg
A bonsai specimen of 'Nana'

Several cultivars have been selected, the most widely grown being 'Nana', a slow-growing procumbent plant, [3] [5] which in the UK has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [6] [7] Others include 'Bonin Isles', a strong-growing mat-forming plant collected on the Bonin Islands, [5] and 'Green Mound', which may just be a renaming of 'Nana'. [5] A variegated plant sold under the name J. procumbens 'Variegata' is actually a cultivar of J. chinensis misnamed. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupressaceae</span> Cypress family of conifers

Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera, which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red-brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.

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

Juniperus communis, the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae. An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.

<i>Chamaecyparis obtusa</i> Tree, a species of cypress

Chamaecyparis obtusa is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and ornamental qualities, with many cultivars commercially available.

<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>Chamaecyparis pisifera</i> Species of conifer

Chamaecyparis pisifera is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū.

<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 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 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.

Juniperus taxifolia is a species of juniper, endemic to the Bonin Islands southeast of Japan.

<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>Juniperus lutchuensis</i> Species of conifer

Juniperus lutchuensis or Ryūkyū juniper is a species of juniper native to the Ryūkyū Islands, Izu Islands, Izu Peninsula, and Bōsō Peninsula, Japan.

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

Juniperus macrocarpa is a species of juniper, native across the northern Mediterranean region from southwestern Spain east to western Turkey and Cyprus, growing on coastal sand dunes from sea level up to 75 metres in altitude. A single, isolated tree is found further west, in a cliff in southern Portugal.

References

  1. Farjon, A.; Carter, G. (2013). "Juniperus procumbens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2013: e.T42246A2966301. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42246A2966301.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Farjon, A. (2005). Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN   1-84246-068-4
  3. 1 2 3 4 Adams, R. P. (2014), Junipers of the World (4th ed.), Trafford Publishing, p. 112, ISBN   978-1-4907-2325-9
  4. Gymnosperm Database: Juniperus procumbens
  5. 1 2 3 4 Welch, H. & Haddow, G. (1993). The World Checklist of Conifers. ISBN   0-900513-09-8
  6. "RHS Plantfinder - Juniperus procumbens 'Nana'" . Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  7. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 56. Retrieved 14 March 2018.