British Native Trees
and Shrubs

Juniper Juniperus communis ssp. communis (Cupressaceae)

The Combe was ever dark, ancient and dark.
Its mouth is stopped with bramble, thorn, and briar;
And no one scrambles over the sliding chalk
By beech and yew and perishing juniper
Down the half precipices of its sides, with roots
And rabbit holes for steps. …

The Combe
Edward Thomas [1878-1917]

This evergreen with its deep-green to blue-green, narrow, needle-like leaves is a versatile and slow-growing plant and the smallest of our three native conifers. It can make a low, spreading shrub up to 60 cm in height, or it can be an erect tree up to 11 m tall, both recognized by the reddish-brown bark and linear leaves borne on young, triangular shoots in whorls of three. Each sharply-pointed leaf is from 8-20 mm long but only about 1 cm wide, with a central, greyish-white band underneath. Small, cone-like yellow male flowers and similar but greenish female flowers usually appear on separate plants. After pollination the female cones look like green berries, 5-10 mm across, which gradually ripen over the three years to glaucous blue and finally black. Each fruit contains up to eight seeds.

Juniper is found on the chalk hills of southern England, on northern limestone and in upland birch woods. The dwarf, prostrate sub-species nana occurs only on high mountains in the Lake District and the compact, shrubby sub-species hemisphaerica is restricted to low cliffs in west Cornwall.

It can be used an attractive specimen tree, or grown in the rock garden or shrubbery. The low-growing nana is especially good as ground cover. Junipers prefer an open, sunny site and they tolerate a wide range of soils from calcareous to acid peat as long as they are not waterlogged. It is very drought resistant and does not need pruning. Propagate from cuttings of the current year’s growth taken with a heel in late summer or early autumn. Pot in a free-draining mix and keep in a shady cold frame until late the following spring when they should be sufficiently rooted to plant in a nursery bed. Plant permanently in autumn or spring. Raising from seed is more difficult as they must be stratified and kept in shade for 18 months before sowing. Alternatively, the berries can be sun-dried and sown straight away in a cold frame, but germination can be slow, up to five years, and seedlings should be left for up to two years more before lining out.

The berries were once a source of a brown dye and are still used for flavouring gin.

The shoot tips are sometimes infected by gall-midges which produce a ‘whooping gall’ once used medicinally in the treatment of whooping cough. The berries are attractive to birds, which swallow them whole and then drop the hard black seeds. The bushes also provide year-round cover for thrushes and goldcrests.

Page last updated - January 10, 2002  

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