Juniperus rigida Sieb. & Zucc.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Juniperus rigida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/juniperus/juniperus-rigida/). Accessed 2024-11-03.

Glossary

berry
Fleshy indehiscent fruit with seed(s) immersed in pulp.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
prostrate
Lying flat.
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Juniperus rigida' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/juniperus/juniperus-rigida/). Accessed 2024-11-03.

A tree sometimes 20 ft or more high, of elegant form, the branches being pendulous at the ends; young shoots glabrous, triangular. Leaves triangular in section, always needle-like and very slender, 13 to 34 in. long, and produced in spreading whorls of threes, very sharply pointed. The upper surface is deeply grooved and has one glaucous band of stomatic lines along the middle; elsewhere the leaf is bright green. Fruits 14 in. or more wide, at first broadly conical, then globose, dark brown, ripening the second year. Seeds one to three in each berry.

Native of Japan; introduced by John Gould Veitch in 1861. It thrives very well in the southern counties of England, making a small, broadly pyramidal shrub or small tree, but is not very common. Most closely allied to J. communis it is still very distinct in its narrower, longer leaves grooved along the upper side, and thinner, more elegant habit.

The finest specimen of J. rigida so far recorded in the British Isles grows at Tongs Wood, Hawkhurst, Kent; this measures 39 × 412 ft (1970). Others measured recently are: Leonardslee, Sussex, 37 × 212 ft (1970); Borde Hill, Sussex, 40 × 2 ft (1958); Smeaton Hepburn, E. Lothian, 34 × 214 ft (1966); Headfort, Co. Meath, Eire, 30 × 314 ft (1966).

subsp. nipponica (Maxim.) Franco J. nipponica Maxim.; J. communis var. nipponica (Maxim.) Wils. – A prostrate shrub found high in the mountains of Japan (Hokkaido and the northern part of the main island). This juniper is usually placed under J. communis but Franco points out (Boll. Soc. Broteriana, Vol. 36 (1962), p. 119) that it is really much nearer to J. rigida which it resembles in the grooved upper surface of the leaves.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Tongs Wood, Hawkhurst, Kent, 50 × 512 ft (1984); Leonardslee, Sussex, 40 × 234 ft (1979); Borde Hill, Sussex, Warren Wood, 40 × 234 ft (1981); Headfort, Co. Meath, Eire, the tree measured in 1966 has been blown down.