Juniper - is it a tree or a shrub? Juniper fruit

Found in the polar zone, temperate forests and subtropical mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere, an interesting plant with a dense oval or cone-shaped crown, called juniper, remains a mystery to many. What is juniper, is it a tree or a shrub? To understand this question, learn all about the plant, its species and forms will help this article.

Features of the genus

In the genus Juniperus from the cypress family, there are almost 60 species of plants that differ significantly from each other. Juniper - is it a shrub or a tree? The official form is recognized as a coniferous shrub, the forms of which can be very different. Their height varies from 0,2 to 5-8 m, sometimes juniper grows up to 8-10 m.

Everything depends on the species, location and growing conditions. It is this height that prompts the question: juniper - is it a tree or a shrub? Like many representatives of the cypress family, juniper, or vesper, as it is also called, is surprisingly long-lived. 200, 600 and even 800 years for different species is considered normal.

In the southern regions, even older plants have been recorded. Juniper is a tree or shrub with evergreen foliage. Its leaves can be scaly or resemble a three-sided needle. They have a persistent, pleasant aroma, which increases noticeably after rain or in the sun. Heather flowers are inconspicuous, and the ripening fruits, cone berries of blue-blue color, are attractive and interesting because they mature in the 2nd year after flowering.

Is juniper a tree or a shrub? Juniper species

Common heather - strictly upright, evergreen dicotyledonous shrub with an oval crown or tree with a dense cone of foliage from 2 to 8 meters high, survives up to 200 years. Its characteristics are slow growth, a fibrous brownish trunk and stiff bluish-green three-angled needles.

This species is extremely light-loving. Planted in the shade, it thins and loses the decorativeness inherent in all representatives of the cypress family. With the onset of winter, some varieties of this hardy and frost-resistant species change the color of the needles to gray-brown.

Common juniper begins to bear fruit from 10-12 years of age. Juniper (tree or bush) has a high decorative value. The plant has gained great popularity among gardeners. Designers emphasize its good compatibility, especially dwarf and stalked species, with heather, ornamental and wild ground cover crops.

They are used in group and single plantings when creating rock gardens - alpinariums or rockeries. High-growing varieties are indispensable in the arrangement of solitaires and hedges. In addition to decorative appreciated quite practical qualities of the plant, as it "holds" the soil, preventing erosion, which is important if the site is located on a slope.

Varieties of common heather

Hibernica - a compact, cone-shaped bush with a height of up to 4 m and a crown diameter of up to 1.2 m. The needles are grayish-green. In winter, the crown of this variety is tied down with a hemp rope, as snowfalls can collapse the bush.
Green Carpet is a winter-hardy creeping shrub, low (up to 0.3 m), but spreading, with a crown diameter of up to 1.5 m and dense green needles.
Hornibrookii is a stalked coniferous shrub with a domed crown up to 0.8 m tall, capable of covering large areas. It has attractive light green needles and tolerates pruning well.
Meyer - columnar and cone-shaped upright compact shrub with openwork greenish-silver needles up to 5 m high and 1.5 m in diameter.
Repanda is a coniferous, flat shrub visually forming a dark green mat. It grows up to 0.5 m in height and grows a crown up to 2 m in diameter. It is used as a good ground cover.

Chinese juniper

This is a shrub or tree that combines both types of leaves in its crown - needle and scale. It is a very hardy and frost-resistant plant with a deep branched root system, capable of tolerating abnormally high temperatures.

Initially scaly leaves of the Chinese juniper planted in the shade or undergoing cardinal pruning are transformed into needles. This species develops well exclusively in sunny areas, in the shade it loses its attractiveness, dropping its foliage, but it quickly adapts to any drained soil.

Visually similar to cypress, Chinese heather successfully replaces it in plantings in the middle latitudes.

Cultivation

Juniper (this tree or shrub) is a long-lived, drought-resistant plant. Of all species, only the common can develop in a slightly shaded place, the others are very fond of the sun and are not afraid of burns.

Does not tolerate heather and oppression by its taller brethren. To the composition of the soil and the level of its fertility all junipers are not very demanding.

Excessive fertilization of the soil can even damage the plant - it will lose its typical crown shape. Dwarf and creeping species well tolerate pruning, but extreme susceptibility to urban gassiness does not make it possible to use the decorativeness of the plant to the fullest.

Care measures are important for plants such as junipers (whether they are trees or shrubs, depending on their height). Their decorativeness and healthy appearance often serve as a visiting card of the site. These crops are responsive to care.

They require moderate watering, periodic weeding and loosening. After planting, it is desirable to mulch the plot with wood chips, sawdust or peat. Sanitary pruning is carried out in early spring, removing bare branches. Since juniper is a tree or shrub cone-shaped, it is tied for the winter to avoid loss of decorativeness.