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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE CYPRESS FAMILY | |||||||||
| The cypress family consists of evergreen shrubs or trees. They can be creeping on the ground or growing upright. The stems are woody and have barks of various colours and textures. The leaves are alternate, opposite, or whorled and are either scale-like or needle-like. The cypresses do not have flowers; instead they have cones. The pollen and seed cones can be on the same plant or on separate plants. The pollen cones are usually very small, with many scales. There are typically two to nine pollen sacs per scale. The pollen sacs release the pollen. The seed cones are mostly woody, though some representatives of this family have berry-like cones. The cones have several to many scales, each of which holds two to many seeds. The seeds are small and wingless or marginally winged. | |||||||||
| ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Juniperus scopulorum | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| This evergreen species grows up to 10 m tall. It is a scraggly tree or shrub with grooved, reddish-brown to greyish bark. The overlapping leaves are scale-like and pressed in to the branch. The leaves are usually green to bluish with an acute to obtuse tip. The pollen cones and the seed cones are on separate plants. The yellowish-brown pollen cones are very small and are found at the ends of branches. The seed cones are berry-like. These cones are greenish when young, but turn bright blue with a white powdery bloom at maturity. There are two to many yellowish seeds per cone. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Rocky Mountain juniper grows on shrubby ravine slopes. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant grows in southern Saskatchewan in the Mixed Grassland ecoregion. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Rocky Mountain juniper is endangered because it is extremely rare in the province. It is only known from one general region of the province and represents an eastward expansion of the species. Only a few individuals are known from each site. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY ROCKY MOUNTAIN JUNIPER | |||||||||
| * Are the leaves scale-like with an acute or obtuse
tip? * Are the cones berry-like? * Is the shrub upright? * Did you find it in southern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found Rocky Mountain juniper! | |||||||||
