Juniper has a long history of medicinal use, which may be the origin of its use as an alcohol flavoring. In fact, the word "gin" is derived from the Dutch word "jenever." (The Dutch were the original brewers of gin.) The plant is under serious threat (overuse and disease) in Europe, while in the U.S., it is a threat to our prairies: https://www.aaas.org/news/juniper-invasion-poses-profound-threat-prairies-researchers-say-aaas-swarm-meeting
Thank you for this, Susan! I enjoy your posts so very much!
Thanks for your support, and the info about the origin of the word gin and the fact that gin was first brewed by the Dutch, Susan!
The real threat to the prairies is the removal of prairie-dogs, who once fed on the woody roots of junipers, mesquites and other small prairie-encroaching trees, keeping them from taking over. After we killed p-dogs by the millions, we gave the trees license to multiply without their main predator, and multiply they have. It doesn't help that our center-pivot irrigation pumps that water grains to fatten livestock also are draining the aquifers that nourish the prairie grasses and wildflowers; deeper-rooted small trees can still reach the groundwater, but the grasses and wildflower roots, which may go down ten feet, but don't go down 50 feet, are left thirsting.
Here in TX, it's not the lack of p-dogs, it's the lack of fire. Bill grubs out as much as he can (by hand) on our bit of TX prairie, but a controlled burn would be much more efficient (but difficult to manage where we are).
We have only 31 acres, with patches of woods, barns & outbuildings, and there are neighbors on the perimeters. Can be done, but would just difficult to manage. Most controlled burns in this area are 50 acres plus and professionally managed.
Kelly, Susan A is correct that "controlled" burns are very difficult to manage on small acreages like hers. Fire is an amazing force, but we've let the fuels accumulate to the point that keeping fire on the ground, where it can be controlled is very, very difficult. I've done prairie fires and also thinning fires in forests, and neither are ever real in "control." The invasion of junipers in the Texas Hill Country, where Susan A lives, has also made those prairies much, much more flammable (all of those aromatic oils in the foliage and wood are like gasoline), so burning to remove them is even more tricky.
yeah its interesting how fire suppression has many more of them in the prairies, i'd say calling them a threat is interesting, when they are responding to the fire suppression and the replacement of prairies with large scale monocrop agriculture. I say burn them and craft with them, and maybe make some gin! And we'll see the prairies come back.
i love reading others' notes on juniper. i taught that class on the ethnobotany of juniper last winter in paonia and a few winters before that too. there's always a wealth more to know about them it seems.
The cedar thing is confusing, especially since true cedars from the etymological/taxinomical sense are actually Pines (Cedrus genus) but alas in our naming out botany forefathers called a lot of things cedar.. The Eastern Red Cedar you refer to as the Juniper east of the rockies, I have started calling Eastern Juniper by habit but what is confusing there is that there is also Atlantic White Cedar Chamaecyparis thyoides) which is threatened due to habitat loss and fire suppression (and yet the Juniperus virginiana is so abundant due to the fire suppression) and the northern White Cedar which is a Thuja. Common names get weird for sure...
And I've heard that gin was mainly made from the J. communis species mainly, in Europe (which grows along the proper J. sabina there that some say is poisonous?) but here in the U.S. where we have tons of different Junipers... that people have been experimenting with making more bioregional gin with other species including one seed and the communis here. It's interesting how they have all have such varying flavor compounds.
I think that the early botanists called almost any conifer with a strong spicy fragrance "cedar" and of course, they were referring to the cedars of lebanon, which as you say, are actually most closely related to pines. Even though the USDA has made a massive attempt to standardize common names, there is a lot of regional confusion built in, as you note.
As for the terpenes, those aromatic flavor compounds, I think the general idea of why they vary among the different species of juniper is that each aromatic compound is aimed at repelling different grazers, whether fungus or insects or whomever. So the different species make a huge variety of different compounds to deal with differing threats from grazers, depending on their range. And yes, it is J. communis in Europe that is commonly, though not always, used to flavor gin. One of the things I love about micro distillery gin from the US is the different flavors from the different junipers. It gives the gin regional terroir, and I love that.
Well below zero here and the blue juniper berries caught my eye on a walk in Erb Park this morning. In Wisconsin there are lots of junipers everywhere and I looked to them this morning sheltering the birds from this wind.
Jill, Are your junipers invasive there the way Juniperus virginiana is farther south on the Southern Great Plains, where they have taken over the prairies in the absence of fire, prairie-dogs and bison? I'm curious if Wisconsin has the same or similar issues. Stay warm!
Not that I am aware of. There are a variety of yard ornamental versions in town here. The University of Wisconsin developed a low growing and spreading variety.
I know that horticulturists have bred a lot of differing ornamental versions, some tall and skinny, some spreading, and some that lend themselves to topiary, which has always seemed to me like plant torture, but to each their own. Stay warm!
Focus! Focus!! (Reader chides self) As a young ‘un in western PA, our school pencils, #2 Ticonderoga and maybe the horse’s leg ones in beginning grades, were possibly from forests near “Cedar Key,” a village on the western Gulf Coast of FL, or locations with an abundance of similar cedars. Another cedar variety, “stinking cedar,” is used here for cedar chests and such.
I built a home in 1984 using “Juniper” for closet linings and wainscoting in dining & living areas, as well as to make interior trim for all doors and windows. Sanding produced the characteristic smell, but dust was omnipresent in short order and demanded breathing protection! A quick search suggests that juniper species may be Juniperous in the cypress family. Cupressaceae?
Years ago I read a columnist who occasionally presented a piece under the heading “Things I learned on my way to look up other things.” Sydney Harris by name. I’m sort of a watered down version of Sydney. In fact my search for cedars and junipers yielded a movie “The Juniper Tree” starring Björk in a 2019 4K restoration of the original. Filmed in b&w entirely in Iceland. (That appeared in my search results on Google.) The original version was based loosely on a Brothers Grim fairy tale also titled The Juniper Tree.
Forgive me Susan for I have meandered. I took the bait of your question on our own experiences with Juniper. While fruitful (fishful?) in a certain way, I really wanted to first say how splendid today’s Practicing Terraphilia>Tuesday Gratitude was to me. A sense of being taken by the hand by Mr(s). Rogers and being led patiently through a wonderland of sights and facts. No question too trivial to not be answered. Figuratively. Whippersnappers can really drain energy.
Q: Are the birds male, female, and immature Western Bluebirds?
Your use of Juniper pollen allergies as a lesson in thinking ecosystem vs annoyance was brilliant. Truly! Similar thinking could prove useful for the “kill every last grey wolf, wolverines too while we’re at it, so farmers can graze their slaughterhouse sheep on land we own. Minds snapped shut cannot be opened.
One or two years for the cones to mature? Intriguing. I wonder if GMO activity is afoot to shorten ripening time to 6 months? How ludicrous! That could prove beneficial to our songbird populations, withering as we talk. What a squandering of resources! Oops, the eco system thinking intrudes. We need lotsa gin.
This just registered: annual sniffling/sneezing from the Juniper pollen? Is a new batch of cones formed every spring to ensure there are always MRE’s for these birds given the one to two year formative process? Nature thinks of everything. Again, many thanks.
Note that the first pencils back in the 1500s were made of European juniper, possible Juniperus communis, which is also the juniper of the original gin.
Second, the birds in the photo are (left to right): female house finch, male western bluebird, and female western bluebird. The bluebirds would be bluer, but my kitchen window, through which I shot the photo, wasn't clean. :)
Third, Opening minds is part of my mission in life, so I'm glad you noticed that. So is ecosystem thinking. I am a community ecologist in the taxonomy of botanists, the sort who studies plants' relationships with every other life. The big picture is my gig, not the details!
Fourth, Here in the Southwest, juniper pollen cones form in fall and open in spring, timed to broadcast their sperm on the spring winds, hence the annual sniffling and sneezing and itchy eyes and headaches. The female cones open in spring to receive that abundance of pollen, and once pollinated take one to two years to mature, partly dependent on summer rains. If we have good rains, they take less time; in drought years, longer. That's nothing that can be genetically modified. Reversing climate change would be helpful to make the Southwest less drought-prone, but I'm not going to get into that issue today.
Thank you Susan! I appreciate you taking time to advance my understanding. I believe I heard, “Discretion is the better part of valor” in your last sentence. Wise.
Birds are the link for so many people to the world of the other, and the joy of this animate planet. We are immensely fortunate to be alive in a world of such abundance, even now. And of course, a martini or gin and tonic now and again doesn't hurt, flavored with juniper berries!
Moving from Moab to the PNW meant losing the P-J woodlands I cherished. Etched by sand and wind, junipers were the twisted survivors that graced red rock country. I always enjoyed picking the berries not just for their splendid aroma but also, of course because I am still somewhat childish, to throw at fellow hikers. Up here, we also have junipers, including one found on the San Juan Islands that has been put to good use flavoring one of our local gins. The species is pretty amazing as palynologists have found evidence for them growing on the islands since the last Ice Age.
Those Utah junipers seem to carry the stories of the ages, and you brought them and their environment so vividly to life in your Canyon Country book. Thanks for the chuckle at the image of you throwing juniper berries (hard little pellets!) at your fellow hikers. :) What's the species of the juniper in the San Juan Islands? I remember them vaguely, but I'm not sure I was paying close attention when we lived in the PNW. Thanks for your "Street Smart Naturalist"--you have inspired to me to learn more about nature in the built environment!
Juniperus maritima is the species on the islands. And, thanks for your kind words about my Naturalist Guide to Canyon Country and my newsletter. Cheers
Marítima is certainly an appropriate specific epithet for a juniper from the San Juan Islands. It's interesting that it may be a relic that's persisted that long. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in western WA!
We have Juniperus virginiana, the Eastern redcedar here in Chattanooga. They grow in cleared forests and abandoned lots. Your view of the prairie is striking, and the prairies are just lovely. I explored them a bit while living in Illinois. I was pursuing a master's in Curriculum and Instruction but took one field botany class.
I can smell the Eastern redcedars in your writing, Ray! Juniperus virginiana is the "cedar" used to line closets and blanket chests because of its highly fragrant wood, full of natural insecticides. They're lovely trees which are taking over the natural prairie openings (and unnatural abandoned lots and clearcuts) throughout the Southeast and much of the Southern Great Plains because of fire suppression. Still, they are beautiful small trees.
And how wonderful that you could take a field botany class and explore the remnant tall grass prairies in Illinois. I've done some burning of those prairie remnants for the Nature Conservancy and was fascinated by the number and kinds of plants packed into such small areas, and the height of the prairie grasses and wildflowers at maturity in summer. Here in the arid rain shadow of the Rockies, our prairie grasses grow in bunches with bare soil between them and seldom reach knee high, but their roots go six or more feet into the soil where the scarce moisture lives.
Glad I found my way here, enjoyed reading about my friends the junipers, after whom I named one of my two cats (the brown tabby with white boots and a pointy meow). I also associate junipers with flocks of Cedar waxwings, who love the fruit of Juniperus virginiana here in the Eastern US.
Welcome! I'm glad you found your way here too, and will go look at your site. I love the description of Juniper (the cat) with a "pointy meow"! It's interesting about cedar waxwings and junipers: here in the inland West, cedar waxwings don't hang out in the juniper woodlands in winter, but they do migrate through. They must head farther south or into the lower, warmer deserts. I'll have to check out where they go.
I don't have any junipers here on this property, or even near. I miss them and the chickadees I lived with previously. So, I make an effort to find places to walk so I can touch the trees, and nibble on the occasional berry..they are surprisingly sweet in a good wet spring. I admire their longevity and resiliency, living in some of the most inhospitable places around. One of my old friends has been alive so long, on his rocky hillside, that my arms are feet short of reaching around its trunk. They are a friendly, comforting tree!
Barbara, it's good to hear your voice and know you are here! I am sorry that you aren't near junipers where you live now, unlike when you lived up higher and closer to the mountains. At least you can go visit them though. Junipers are long-lived in general (those aromatic compounds they make that repel insects help with long life!) and I think the Rocky Mountain junipers in your area are among the oldest. I love that you nibble on the berries in spring! I use them in roasting meat and sometimes flavor vinegars with them too.
What a fascinating post and comments section! We have juniper trees in the garden, but I have to admit that all the information you shared was new to me. And I'm most grateful for it, because as much I already loved those trees I now I have an even deeper appreciation of them--such is the joy of learning and sharing information about the natural world! Thanks so much, Susan.
Chloe, Thank you for reading! The junipers you have there are the species originally used to flavor gin, which the amazing mystery writer and font of herbal knowledge Susan Albert says was first distilled by the Dutch. It would be interesting to know how old your junipers are--here in the arid part of North America, they are very long-lived trees, but I don't know about in more humid climates. Blessings to you and your junipers!
I'm in Tucson, Arizona, and we have several bird feeders for the different types of birds here. They must watch for the hawk that frequently comes by though. I watched it chase after a roadrunner one morning but, thank goodness, the hawk didn't catch it.
Watching your local bird community is always a delight. Feeders are great for that, but as you've found, they are also lunch counters for predators like hawks. Because feeders cause the birds to congregate more than they normally would, hawks have learned to listen for the sounds of a bird gathering and cruise by for a meal. Good thing your roadrunner neighbor was quick!
Juniper has a long history of medicinal use, which may be the origin of its use as an alcohol flavoring. In fact, the word "gin" is derived from the Dutch word "jenever." (The Dutch were the original brewers of gin.) The plant is under serious threat (overuse and disease) in Europe, while in the U.S., it is a threat to our prairies: https://www.aaas.org/news/juniper-invasion-poses-profound-threat-prairies-researchers-say-aaas-swarm-meeting
Thank you for this, Susan! I enjoy your posts so very much!
Thanks for your support, and the info about the origin of the word gin and the fact that gin was first brewed by the Dutch, Susan!
The real threat to the prairies is the removal of prairie-dogs, who once fed on the woody roots of junipers, mesquites and other small prairie-encroaching trees, keeping them from taking over. After we killed p-dogs by the millions, we gave the trees license to multiply without their main predator, and multiply they have. It doesn't help that our center-pivot irrigation pumps that water grains to fatten livestock also are draining the aquifers that nourish the prairie grasses and wildflowers; deeper-rooted small trees can still reach the groundwater, but the grasses and wildflower roots, which may go down ten feet, but don't go down 50 feet, are left thirsting.
Here in TX, it's not the lack of p-dogs, it's the lack of fire. Bill grubs out as much as he can (by hand) on our bit of TX prairie, but a controlled burn would be much more efficient (but difficult to manage where we are).
why is it difficult to do controlled fire there? is it frowned upon or dangerous given the suppression for a long time?
We have only 31 acres, with patches of woods, barns & outbuildings, and there are neighbors on the perimeters. Can be done, but would just difficult to manage. Most controlled burns in this area are 50 acres plus and professionally managed.
Kelly, Susan A is correct that "controlled" burns are very difficult to manage on small acreages like hers. Fire is an amazing force, but we've let the fuels accumulate to the point that keeping fire on the ground, where it can be controlled is very, very difficult. I've done prairie fires and also thinning fires in forests, and neither are ever real in "control." The invasion of junipers in the Texas Hill Country, where Susan A lives, has also made those prairies much, much more flammable (all of those aromatic oils in the foliage and wood are like gasoline), so burning to remove them is even more tricky.
right forgot about the prairie dogs. them plus fire as you both are saying here and big players!
yeah its interesting how fire suppression has many more of them in the prairies, i'd say calling them a threat is interesting, when they are responding to the fire suppression and the replacement of prairies with large scale monocrop agriculture. I say burn them and craft with them, and maybe make some gin! And we'll see the prairies come back.
It's going to be complicated to bring the prairies back. And expensive. But it can be done.
i love reading others' notes on juniper. i taught that class on the ethnobotany of juniper last winter in paonia and a few winters before that too. there's always a wealth more to know about them it seems.
The cedar thing is confusing, especially since true cedars from the etymological/taxinomical sense are actually Pines (Cedrus genus) but alas in our naming out botany forefathers called a lot of things cedar.. The Eastern Red Cedar you refer to as the Juniper east of the rockies, I have started calling Eastern Juniper by habit but what is confusing there is that there is also Atlantic White Cedar Chamaecyparis thyoides) which is threatened due to habitat loss and fire suppression (and yet the Juniperus virginiana is so abundant due to the fire suppression) and the northern White Cedar which is a Thuja. Common names get weird for sure...
And I've heard that gin was mainly made from the J. communis species mainly, in Europe (which grows along the proper J. sabina there that some say is poisonous?) but here in the U.S. where we have tons of different Junipers... that people have been experimenting with making more bioregional gin with other species including one seed and the communis here. It's interesting how they have all have such varying flavor compounds.
I think that the early botanists called almost any conifer with a strong spicy fragrance "cedar" and of course, they were referring to the cedars of lebanon, which as you say, are actually most closely related to pines. Even though the USDA has made a massive attempt to standardize common names, there is a lot of regional confusion built in, as you note.
As for the terpenes, those aromatic flavor compounds, I think the general idea of why they vary among the different species of juniper is that each aromatic compound is aimed at repelling different grazers, whether fungus or insects or whomever. So the different species make a huge variety of different compounds to deal with differing threats from grazers, depending on their range. And yes, it is J. communis in Europe that is commonly, though not always, used to flavor gin. One of the things I love about micro distillery gin from the US is the different flavors from the different junipers. It gives the gin regional terroir, and I love that.
Well below zero here and the blue juniper berries caught my eye on a walk in Erb Park this morning. In Wisconsin there are lots of junipers everywhere and I looked to them this morning sheltering the birds from this wind.
Jill, Are your junipers invasive there the way Juniperus virginiana is farther south on the Southern Great Plains, where they have taken over the prairies in the absence of fire, prairie-dogs and bison? I'm curious if Wisconsin has the same or similar issues. Stay warm!
Not that I am aware of. There are a variety of yard ornamental versions in town here. The University of Wisconsin developed a low growing and spreading variety.
I know that horticulturists have bred a lot of differing ornamental versions, some tall and skinny, some spreading, and some that lend themselves to topiary, which has always seemed to me like plant torture, but to each their own. Stay warm!
Focus! Focus!! (Reader chides self) As a young ‘un in western PA, our school pencils, #2 Ticonderoga and maybe the horse’s leg ones in beginning grades, were possibly from forests near “Cedar Key,” a village on the western Gulf Coast of FL, or locations with an abundance of similar cedars. Another cedar variety, “stinking cedar,” is used here for cedar chests and such.
I built a home in 1984 using “Juniper” for closet linings and wainscoting in dining & living areas, as well as to make interior trim for all doors and windows. Sanding produced the characteristic smell, but dust was omnipresent in short order and demanded breathing protection! A quick search suggests that juniper species may be Juniperous in the cypress family. Cupressaceae?
Years ago I read a columnist who occasionally presented a piece under the heading “Things I learned on my way to look up other things.” Sydney Harris by name. I’m sort of a watered down version of Sydney. In fact my search for cedars and junipers yielded a movie “The Juniper Tree” starring Björk in a 2019 4K restoration of the original. Filmed in b&w entirely in Iceland. (That appeared in my search results on Google.) The original version was based loosely on a Brothers Grim fairy tale also titled The Juniper Tree.
Forgive me Susan for I have meandered. I took the bait of your question on our own experiences with Juniper. While fruitful (fishful?) in a certain way, I really wanted to first say how splendid today’s Practicing Terraphilia>Tuesday Gratitude was to me. A sense of being taken by the hand by Mr(s). Rogers and being led patiently through a wonderland of sights and facts. No question too trivial to not be answered. Figuratively. Whippersnappers can really drain energy.
Q: Are the birds male, female, and immature Western Bluebirds?
Your use of Juniper pollen allergies as a lesson in thinking ecosystem vs annoyance was brilliant. Truly! Similar thinking could prove useful for the “kill every last grey wolf, wolverines too while we’re at it, so farmers can graze their slaughterhouse sheep on land we own. Minds snapped shut cannot be opened.
One or two years for the cones to mature? Intriguing. I wonder if GMO activity is afoot to shorten ripening time to 6 months? How ludicrous! That could prove beneficial to our songbird populations, withering as we talk. What a squandering of resources! Oops, the eco system thinking intrudes. We need lotsa gin.
This just registered: annual sniffling/sneezing from the Juniper pollen? Is a new batch of cones formed every spring to ensure there are always MRE’s for these birds given the one to two year formative process? Nature thinks of everything. Again, many thanks.
Gary, You have an amazing mind! First, re pencils, you might like this short (sharp) history of the pencil: https://kitkemp.com/a-short-sharp-history-of-the-pencil/
Note that the first pencils back in the 1500s were made of European juniper, possible Juniperus communis, which is also the juniper of the original gin.
Second, the birds in the photo are (left to right): female house finch, male western bluebird, and female western bluebird. The bluebirds would be bluer, but my kitchen window, through which I shot the photo, wasn't clean. :)
Third, Opening minds is part of my mission in life, so I'm glad you noticed that. So is ecosystem thinking. I am a community ecologist in the taxonomy of botanists, the sort who studies plants' relationships with every other life. The big picture is my gig, not the details!
Fourth, Here in the Southwest, juniper pollen cones form in fall and open in spring, timed to broadcast their sperm on the spring winds, hence the annual sniffling and sneezing and itchy eyes and headaches. The female cones open in spring to receive that abundance of pollen, and once pollinated take one to two years to mature, partly dependent on summer rains. If we have good rains, they take less time; in drought years, longer. That's nothing that can be genetically modified. Reversing climate change would be helpful to make the Southwest less drought-prone, but I'm not going to get into that issue today.
Thank you Susan! I appreciate you taking time to advance my understanding. I believe I heard, “Discretion is the better part of valor” in your last sentence. Wise.
Sometimes we are wise! Often not. But we celebrate when we are. :)
Beautiful! Thanks for these fascinating details. I do enjoy a martini now and again. And, of course, birds, always. 🥰
Birds are the link for so many people to the world of the other, and the joy of this animate planet. We are immensely fortunate to be alive in a world of such abundance, even now. And of course, a martini or gin and tonic now and again doesn't hurt, flavored with juniper berries!
Susan
Moving from Moab to the PNW meant losing the P-J woodlands I cherished. Etched by sand and wind, junipers were the twisted survivors that graced red rock country. I always enjoyed picking the berries not just for their splendid aroma but also, of course because I am still somewhat childish, to throw at fellow hikers. Up here, we also have junipers, including one found on the San Juan Islands that has been put to good use flavoring one of our local gins. The species is pretty amazing as palynologists have found evidence for them growing on the islands since the last Ice Age.
Thanks for your stories,
David
Those Utah junipers seem to carry the stories of the ages, and you brought them and their environment so vividly to life in your Canyon Country book. Thanks for the chuckle at the image of you throwing juniper berries (hard little pellets!) at your fellow hikers. :) What's the species of the juniper in the San Juan Islands? I remember them vaguely, but I'm not sure I was paying close attention when we lived in the PNW. Thanks for your "Street Smart Naturalist"--you have inspired to me to learn more about nature in the built environment!
Juniperus maritima is the species on the islands. And, thanks for your kind words about my Naturalist Guide to Canyon Country and my newsletter. Cheers
Marítima is certainly an appropriate specific epithet for a juniper from the San Juan Islands. It's interesting that it may be a relic that's persisted that long. I'll have to check it out next time I'm in western WA!
We have Juniperus virginiana, the Eastern redcedar here in Chattanooga. They grow in cleared forests and abandoned lots. Your view of the prairie is striking, and the prairies are just lovely. I explored them a bit while living in Illinois. I was pursuing a master's in Curriculum and Instruction but took one field botany class.
I can smell the Eastern redcedars in your writing, Ray! Juniperus virginiana is the "cedar" used to line closets and blanket chests because of its highly fragrant wood, full of natural insecticides. They're lovely trees which are taking over the natural prairie openings (and unnatural abandoned lots and clearcuts) throughout the Southeast and much of the Southern Great Plains because of fire suppression. Still, they are beautiful small trees.
And how wonderful that you could take a field botany class and explore the remnant tall grass prairies in Illinois. I've done some burning of those prairie remnants for the Nature Conservancy and was fascinated by the number and kinds of plants packed into such small areas, and the height of the prairie grasses and wildflowers at maturity in summer. Here in the arid rain shadow of the Rockies, our prairie grasses grow in bunches with bare soil between them and seldom reach knee high, but their roots go six or more feet into the soil where the scarce moisture lives.
Glad I found my way here, enjoyed reading about my friends the junipers, after whom I named one of my two cats (the brown tabby with white boots and a pointy meow). I also associate junipers with flocks of Cedar waxwings, who love the fruit of Juniperus virginiana here in the Eastern US.
Welcome! I'm glad you found your way here too, and will go look at your site. I love the description of Juniper (the cat) with a "pointy meow"! It's interesting about cedar waxwings and junipers: here in the inland West, cedar waxwings don't hang out in the juniper woodlands in winter, but they do migrate through. They must head farther south or into the lower, warmer deserts. I'll have to check out where they go.
I don't have any junipers here on this property, or even near. I miss them and the chickadees I lived with previously. So, I make an effort to find places to walk so I can touch the trees, and nibble on the occasional berry..they are surprisingly sweet in a good wet spring. I admire their longevity and resiliency, living in some of the most inhospitable places around. One of my old friends has been alive so long, on his rocky hillside, that my arms are feet short of reaching around its trunk. They are a friendly, comforting tree!
Barbara, it's good to hear your voice and know you are here! I am sorry that you aren't near junipers where you live now, unlike when you lived up higher and closer to the mountains. At least you can go visit them though. Junipers are long-lived in general (those aromatic compounds they make that repel insects help with long life!) and I think the Rocky Mountain junipers in your area are among the oldest. I love that you nibble on the berries in spring! I use them in roasting meat and sometimes flavor vinegars with them too.
What a fascinating post and comments section! We have juniper trees in the garden, but I have to admit that all the information you shared was new to me. And I'm most grateful for it, because as much I already loved those trees I now I have an even deeper appreciation of them--such is the joy of learning and sharing information about the natural world! Thanks so much, Susan.
Chloe, Thank you for reading! The junipers you have there are the species originally used to flavor gin, which the amazing mystery writer and font of herbal knowledge Susan Albert says was first distilled by the Dutch. It would be interesting to know how old your junipers are--here in the arid part of North America, they are very long-lived trees, but I don't know about in more humid climates. Blessings to you and your junipers!
I’ll see if I can find out! They’re definitely pretty established as they’re about 30 feet high.
I’ll be sure to thank them for that wonderful gin smell :)
I'm in Tucson, Arizona, and we have several bird feeders for the different types of birds here. They must watch for the hawk that frequently comes by though. I watched it chase after a roadrunner one morning but, thank goodness, the hawk didn't catch it.
Watching your local bird community is always a delight. Feeders are great for that, but as you've found, they are also lunch counters for predators like hawks. Because feeders cause the birds to congregate more than they normally would, hawks have learned to listen for the sounds of a bird gathering and cruise by for a meal. Good thing your roadrunner neighbor was quick!