''Juniperus rigida'', the temple juniper, is a species of

juniper 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 Arcti ...

, native to northern China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and the far southeast of Russia ( Sakhalin and Primorsky Krai), occurring at altitudes of . The species is also naturalized in the United States ( California and Alabama). It is closely related to '' Juniperus communis'' (common juniper) and ''

Juniperus conferta ''Juniperus conferta'' (shore juniper and blue pacific juniper) is a species of juniper, native to Japan, where it grows on sand dunes. It is often treated as a variety or subspecies of ''Juniperus rigida''.Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupre ...

'' (shore juniper), the latter sometimes treated as a variety or subspecies of ''J. rigida''.Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Adams, R. P. (2004). ''Junipers of the World''. Trafford. It is a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

or small tree growing to a height of and a trunk diameter up to . The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are evergreen, needle-like, in whorls of three, bright green to yellowish-green, long and 1–1.3 mm broad, with a single white

stoma In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

tal band on the inner surface. It is

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are

berry-like In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines) and bananas, but exclu ...

, green ripening in 18 months to dark purple or brownish with a variable whitish waxy coating; they are spherical, 5–9 mm diameter, and have three (rarely six) fused scales in one (rarely two) whorls of three, each with a single seed (when six scales, only the three larger scales with seeds). The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard seeds in their droppings. The pollen cones are yellow, 3–5 mm long, and fall soon after shedding their

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

in spring. It is grown as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

, often planted in temple grounds in Japan. It is also often grown as

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

Gallery

File:Juniperus rigida 01.jpg, Specimen tree File:Juniperus rigida 02.jpg, Pendulous branchlets Image:Juniperus rigida5.jpg, Foliage and pollen cones Image:Juniperus rigida1.jpg, Bark Image:Juniperus rigida-Bonsai.jpg, Trained as a bonsai.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1204856 rigida Flora of Eastern Asia Flora of China Flora of Mongolia Flora of the Russian Far East Plants described in 1846 Garden plants of Asia Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Dioecious plants