''Juniperus excelsa'', commonly called the Greek juniper, is a juniper found throughout the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, from northeastern

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

across

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

to Syria and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

mountains, and southern coast of

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. A subspecies, ''J. excelsa'' subsp. ''polycarpos'', known as the Persian juniper, occurs in the

Alborz The Alborz ( fa, البرز) range, also spelled as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran that stretches from the border of Azerbaijan along the western and entire southern coast of the Caspian Sea and finally runs nort ...

and other mountains of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

east to northwestern

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, and an isolated population in the Jebal Akhdar mountains of

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

; some botanists treat this as a distinct species, '' Juniperus polycarpos''."''Juniperus polycarpos''" . ''The Plant List.'' Accessed 6 December 2020

/ref>

Description

''Juniperus excelsa'' is a large shrub or

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

reaching tall, rarely . It has a trunk up to in diameter, and a broadly conical to rounded or irregular crown. The leaves are of two forms, juvenile needle-like leaves long on seedlings, and adult scale-leaves 0.6–3 mm long on older plants. It is largely dioecious with separate male and female plants, but some individual plants produce both sexes. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are berry-like, 6–11 mm in diameter, blue-black with a whitish waxy bloom, and contain 3-6

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s; they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 3–4 mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring. It often occurs together with ''

Juniperus foetidissima ''Juniperus foetidissima'', with common names foetid juniper or stinking juniper, is a juniper tree species in the family Cupressaceae. Description ''Juniperus foetidissima'' is a medium-sized tree reaching tall, with a trunk up to in diameter ...

'', being distinguished from it by its slenderer shoots 0.7–1.3 mm diameter (1.2–2 mm diameter in ''J. foetidissima''), and grey-green, rather than mid green, leaves. The

Algum Algum (sometimes rendered Almug or as its plural, Almuggim) is a type of wood referred to in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical reference According to the First Book of Kings (1 Kings 10:12), and the Second Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 2:8; 9:10–11) ...

wood mentioned in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

may be from this species, but is not definitely so.

References

* *Adams, R. P. (2004). ''Junipers of the World: The genus Juniperus''. Victoria: Trafford. . *Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. .
Gymnosperm Database: ''Juniperus excelsa''photo of tree in southwest Turkey

External links

''Juniperus excelsa''
- information, genetic conservation units and related resources.

European Forest Genetic Resources Programme European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN) is an international network that supports the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe. The programme’s tasks include to coordinate and promote '' in situ'' an ...

(EUFORGEN) {{Taxonbar, from=Q773892 excelsa Flora of Europe Least concern plants Flora of Bulgaria Dioecious plants