''Juniperus chinensis'' 'Shimpaku' (the shimpaku juniper) is a dwarf, irregular vase-shaped form of the Chinese juniper, ''

Juniperus chinensis ''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 tall, it is a very variable coniferous evergreen tree or shrub. ...

''. Originally native to Japan, they were first collected in the 1850s in Japan. It is a slow-growing evergreen shrub that typically grows to tall and wide over a period of 10 years. Gray-green to dull dark green clusters of soft needles cover them. They are primarily grown and used as decoration, and at one point were a symbol of status in Japan. The Japanese botanical name of the shimpaku juniper is ''miyama-byakushin''. The shimpaku juniper is used as bonsai material and in various gardens, such as

rock gardens A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

Bonsai

Shimpaku juniper are one of the most popular species for

bonsai Bonsai (; , ) is the Japanese art of Horticulture, growing and shaping miniature trees in containers, with a long documented history of influences and native Japanese development over a thousand years, and with unique aesthetics, cultural hist ...

in the bonsai community. Its attractive

foliage A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, f ...

and beautiful bark make this one of the top candidates for bonsai. Many wild trees have been collected in Japan, making it extremely rare to find growing wild. In fact, today the shimpaku junipers growing in the wild in Japan face extinction due to over collecting. Shimpaku was and is very dangerous to collect. Many of the best shimpaku live only in remote cliff areas. It is said that the first shimpaku to be collected in the wild came from the Ishizuchi mountain range on

Shikoku Island is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's anc ...

. Collected shimpakus are known for their deadwood, called jin and shari in the bonsai community. Many bonsai masterpieces are shimpaku junipers.

Masahiko Kimura was a Japanese people, Japanese judoka and professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He won the All-Japan Judo Championships three times in a row for the first time in history and had never lost a judo match from 1936 to 1950. In submission ...

is known for having many outstanding shimpaku.

Gardening information

:Zone: 3 to 9 :Plant Type: Needled evergreen :Family:

Cupressaceae Cupressaceae or the cypress family is a family of conifers. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecio ...

:Height: :Spread: :Sun: Full sun :Water: Medium :Maintenance: Low

Cultivars

:Itoigawa :Kishu

References

External links

Missouri Botanical Gardens

WBFF Shimpaku Article
chinensis Shimpaku Plants used in bonsai {{conifer-stub