26 BULLETIN 207, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



UTAH JUNIPER.! 



Juniperus utahensis (Engelm.) Lemmon. 



COMMON NAME AND EARLY HISTORY. 



Like most of the other brown-wooded junipers, Juniperus utahensis 

 has no distinctive common name. In the region where it grows, the 

 people usually call it merely " juniper" or sometimes "cedar," sel- 

 dom if ever distinguishing it from the other species of its kind. The 

 discovery of this tree in Utah led to its being given the technical name 

 "Utahensis," from which the common name employed here is de- 

 rived. While Utah juniper is the most distinctive name that can be 

 suggested, it is not entirely appropriate, because the tree is not con- 

 fined to Utah, a large part of its range, in fact, lying outside that 

 State. 



Utah juniper was discovered sometime between 1867 and 1869, 

 during the exploration of Nevada and Utah by the United States 

 Geological Survey. The botanical history of the tree shows that its 

 distinguishing characters were imperfectly known until comparatively 

 recent times. The earliest account of it was published in 1871 under 

 "Juniperus occidentalis Watson," the writer supposing it to be a 

 form of the western juniper. In 1877 it was described as "J. cali- 

 fornica var. utahensis Engelm.," and finally, in 1890, as "J. utahensis 

 Lemmon." The tree is distinct from the California and western juni- 

 pers both in its botanical characters and geographic range. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 



Utah juniper is commonly a low, very short trunked, or many- 

 stemmed, bushy tree, from 6 to 12 feet high, 2 and from 4 to 8 or more 



1 In 1897 Prof. Aven Nelson found a "shrublike tree" juniper in Wyoming (Red Desert region from Sem- 

 inole Mountains to Green River) which in 1898 he named Juniperus knightii (Bot. Gaz. xxv, 198, fig. 1, 2, 

 1898). 



The writer has not seen authentic specimens of this juniper, and was, therefore, unable personally to 

 decide what final disposition should be made of the tree in the present work. Several authors have, how- 

 ever, reduced Juniperus knightii to a synonym of J. utahensis. Judging from Prof. Nelson's description 

 and illustrations of J. knightii it would seem to be very closely related to J. utahensis and J. megalocarpa. 

 It resembles the former species particularly in the low-branched several-stemmed habit of its crown, and 

 both of these junipers in its large fruit and single large seed. The "copper-colored" fruit ascribed to J. 

 knightii is not, however, strictly speaking, characteristic of J. utahensis and J. megalocarpa. 

 The author's technical description (loc. cit.) of J. knightii, slightly condensed, follows: 

 "A scraggy shrub or small tree, usually much branched from the base— i. e., trunkless or breaking up 

 into several subequal trunks also freely branched, branches widely spreading, the lowest close to the ground 

 and almost resting upon it, round-topped, 3-7 meters high or possibly in places exceeding this; leaves 3- 

 ranked, closely appressed * * * entire or rarely minutely denticulate, neither pitted nor glandular 

 * * * berrylike cones blue-green or copper-colored * * * broadly oval. 7-10 millimeters long, dry, 

 the coalesced scales thin, in dried specimens closely and tenaciously adherent to the large single seed; the 

 seed ovate, obtuse, slightly grooved above, rounded or swollen at the base; fruit possibly not maturing till 

 the second year." 



2 The several-stemmed forms of Utah juniper are similar in general appearance to like forms of the one-seed 

 juniper. In the majority of cases, however, if not in all, the trunklike branches of Utah juniper leave the 

 trunk near or above the ground, while in the case of one-seed juniper, the two or more stems usually arise 

 from the main root-stock, or collar, at or slightly below the surface of the ground. 



