708 AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



UTAH JUNIPER (Juniperus ittahensis) is known also as juniper, desert juniper, 

 and western red cedar. The last name is properly applied to a different tree in 

 Washington and Oregon. The Utah juniper occupies the great basin between the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, particularly in Utah, Nevada, California, 

 Arizona, and Colorado. It thrives best about 8,000 feet above the sea, but descends 

 to 5,000 feet or less. It is a desert tree, usually small, often a mere shrub, but 

 occasionally attaining a height of twenty feet or more and a diameter of one or two. 

 The trunk is irregular in shape, and is generally deeply fluted. The wood is light 

 brown in color, though it varies greatly in different specimens, and even in the same 

 tree. The sapwood is thick and nearly white. The tree has not been much used 

 except for fence posts and fuel. The Indians of the region eat the berries raw or 

 bake them in cakes. 



