Sabina osteosperma (Utah Juniper), Sabina monosperma (One-seed Juniper), and Pinus edulis (Pinyon Pine) dominate millions of acres of the West.  Grasses, Sagebrush, Serviceberry, Mountain Mahogany, Blackbrush, and numerous wildflowers find homes in these vast forests.  The seeds of Pinyon and Juniper nourish wildlife and beginning 2,000 years ago the Anasazi created a civilization with these trees, using them to build homes, feed, clothe, and warm themselves.  And they must have found the redolence of a Juniper and Pinyon Pine fire to be one of the grand pleasures of life  --  many of us in the Southwest still do today.

     Also today, Native Americans of the Southwest and gourmet cooks around the world still prize Pinyon Pine nuts for snacking and cooking.  The rot resistant wood of the Juniper is used extensively for fence posts and its seeds are strung on necklaces as "Ghost Beads" by the Navajo.

     Most species of Sabina are commonly called "Cedar" in the United States: "Cedar fence posts", "Cedar firewood", "Eastern Red Cedar", etc.  But there are no Cedars, no members of Cedrus, in the United States.  What we call Cedars are members of Cupressaceae (Cypress Family). 

     The scientific name has further confusion:  The genus was named Juniperus by Linnaeus in 1753.  "Sabina"  is the ancient Latin name for this genus and in the mid-19th century this name was again suggested for most American members of this genus.  Almost all botanists today still refer to the American members of this genus as "Juniperus".  This web site accepts the nomenclature of the Colorado plant authority, William Weber, and he designates "Sabina" as the correct name, accepting "Juniperus" as proper only for the sprawling "Juniperus communis".

See Sabina scopulorum and Sabina deppeana  and  Sabina monosperma.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Dolores River Overlook, April 23, 2008.

With age comes grandeur. High above the Dolores River Canyon a Utah Juniper passes the centuries.  Typically, it has lost its lower branches; its dead branches add to its grandeur.  At two or three hundred years a Utah Juniper is still middle-aged.

Utah Juniper’s light green rounded leaves, blue cones (berries), and low-growing, spreading, irregular shape are distinctive.  Green-yellow balls of Mistletoe (see below) are common in some Junipers in some areas of their growth range such as Mesa Verde National Park.

Some species of Junipers in our area bear fruit on all plants (they are thus "monoecious"), some bear fruit only on female trees ("dioecious").  The Utah Juniper is usually monoecious, i.e., it usually has both male and female floral parts on each tree and therefore has seeds (enclosed in a blue cone) on all trees.  The seeds of these trees take two seasons to mature.

"Osteosperma" is Latin for "hard seed".  John Bigelow collected the first specimen of this tree in Arizona in about 1853.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, March 1, 2006.

Juniper berries are often produced in massive abundance.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, March 1, 2006.

When Juniper berries fall to the ground they ring their tree in a lovely splash of blue.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, June 10, 2004.

Juniper berries are food for many Colorado Plateau creatures, and they also find their way into cook book recipes and the flavoring of gin.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Mesa Verde National Park, April 26, 2007.

Shells of Juniper seeds are scattered around the base of these Juniper seedlings.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Canyonlands National Park, March 25, 2001.

These blue-white galls (benign but abnormal tissue growth) are fairly common on Utah Juniper.  The precise cause of the galls is not known: 1) They may result from wasps or flies laying eggs on the branch (the blue tree growth would then inadvertently protect and give nourishment to the eggs and larvae), and/or 2) they may be caused by the larvae feeding on the tree cells.  In either case, the tree is apparently trying to isolate the irritation.

Semi-desert, foothills. Woodlands. Spring.
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, June 10, 2004.

Eight-to-fourteen inch drooping balls of Phoradendron juniperinum, Mistletoe, are occasional parasites on Sabina osteosperma.  Generally both plants lead long lives together, but occasionally sufficient Mistletoe growth in a tree combines with other stress factors and the tree will die after many, many years of attack.  The Mistletoe (in the center and upper left center of the photograph) looks quite similar to leaves of the tree, which surround the Mistletoe in the photograph at left.