Juniperus wallichiana Parl.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Juniperus wallichiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/juniperus/juniperus-wallichiana/). Accessed 2024-11-06.

Common Names

  • Black Juniper

Synonyms

  • J. pseudosabina Hook. f., not Fisch. & Mey.

Glossary

appressed
Lying flat against an object.
branchlet
Small branch or twig usually less than a year old.
decurrent
Running down as when a leaf extends along a stem.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
herbarium
A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
keeled
With a prominent ridge.
synonym
(syn.) (botanical) An alternative or former name for a taxon usually considered to be invalid (often given in brackets). Synonyms arise when a taxon has been described more than once (the prior name usually being the one accepted as correct) or if an article of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature has been contravened requiring the publishing of a new name. Developments in taxonomic thought may be reflected in an increasing list of synonyms as generic or specific concepts change over time.

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Juniperus wallichiana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/juniperus/juniperus-wallichiana/). Accessed 2024-11-06.

A tree 60 ft high in Sikkim, according to Brandis, with spreading branches. Leaves of two types: (1) juvenile, in whorls of threes, 18 to 14 in. long, sharply pointed, pointing forwards, concave and very glaucous above, green and keeled below, all very closely set upon the branchlet, with the stalk extending down and attached to it (decurrent); and (2) adult leaves 116 in. long, scale-like, arranged in opposite pairs overlapping each other and appressed to the branchlet, pointed with the points incurved, grooved outside, bright green. Male and female flowers on separate trees. Fruits egg-shaped, tapered at the top, 14 to 12 in. long, at first dark brown, blue when ripe, one-seeded.

Native of the Himalaya, up to 15,000 ft elevation; introduced by Sir Joseph Hooker to Kew in 1849, but no longer represented in the collection. It is rare in cultivation, and the trees considered to belong to it are 20 to 35 ft high and up to 2 ft in girth. There are specimens in this range of size at Wakehurst, Leonardslee, and Borde Hill, Sussex; National Pinetum, Bedgebury, Kent; Bodnant, Denbighs; East Bergholt, Suffolk; and Castlewellan, Co. Down.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

The name J. wallichiana started in a herbarium annotation by Hooker and Thomson, and was first validly published by Brandis, who should have been given as the author and not Parlatore. The latter cited the name only as a synonym of J. pseudosabina Fisch. & Mey., for which see Volume II, page 497.

J. wallichiana is typically a tree. Ground-hugging shrubs occurring at altitudes of up to 15,000 ft in the Himalaya are usually considered to be conspecific with it, but it is not impossible that these are J. pseudosabina, which is of similar habit to these high-altitude Himalayan plants.

The name J. indica Bertoloni has priority over J. wallichiana (though not over J. pseudosabina), but it is poorly founded and best left in abeyance until the Himalayan junipers have been more closely studied. Both J. indica and J. wallichiana are given as synonyms of J. pseudosabina in Flora of Bhutan, Vol. I(1), p. 55 (1983).


J pseudosabina Fisch. & Mey

This allied species has been confused with J. wallichiana but is shrubby and has the scale-like leaves blunt or rounded at the end; the fruits are like those of J. wallichiana in being one-seeded, but are more globose and smaller. Native of Siberia and parts of central Asia.