Juniperus virginiana

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Juniperus virginiana
Juniperus virginiana on a golf course in northern Virginia

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]

Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnospermae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order:
Cupressales
Family: Cupressaceae
Genus: Juniperus
Section:
Juniperus sect. Sabina
Species:
J. virginiana
Binomial name
Juniperus virginiana
Natural distribution of varieties:
J. virginiana var. virginiana (green)
and J. virginiana var. silicicola (red)

Juniperus virginiana, also known as eastern redcedar,[2][3] red cedar, Virginian juniper,[4] eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Great Plains.[3] Further west it is replaced by the related Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper) and to the southwest by Juniperus ashei (Ashe juniper).[5][6][7] It is not to be confused with Thuja occidentalis (eastern white cedar).

Description

Juniperus virginiana foliage and mature cones

Juniperus virginiana is a dense slow-growing

dioecious, with pollen and seed cones on separate trees,[5][6][7]
yet some are monoecious.

Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana)

There are two varieties,

intergrade where they meet:[5][6][7]

  • Juniperus virginiana var. virginiana is called eastern juniper / redcedar. It is found in eastern North America, from Maine, west to southern Ontario and South Dakota, south to northernmost Florida and southwest into the post oak savannah of east-central Texas. Cones are larger, 4–7 mm (31614 in); scale leaves are acute at apex and bark is red-brown.
  • Juniperus virginiana var. silicicola (Small) E.Murray (syn. Sabina silicicola Small, Juniperus silicicola (Small) L.H.Bailey) is known as southern or sand juniper / redcedar. Its variety name means "flint-dweller", from Latin silex and -cola. Habitat is along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from the extreme southeastern corner of Virginia,[10] south to central Florida and west to southeast Texas. Cones are smaller, 3–4 mm (18316 in); scale leaves are blunt at apex and the bark is orange-brown. It is treated by some authors at the lower rank of variety, while others treat it as a distinct species.

Ecology

Characteristic shape in old field succession

Eastern Red Cedar is a

fungal disease of apples, and some management strategies recommend the removal of J. virginiana near apple orchards[12]

Eastern Red Cedar grows in a wide range of climatic and soil conditions. The tree is extremely tolerant of drought due to its extensive, fibrous root system and reduced leaf area. It can be found from droughty, rocky soils with few nutrients to rich alluvial soils with abundant moisture. However, Eastern Red Cedar is almost never dominant on such rich mesic sites due to intense competition with faster growing, more shade tolerant hardwood trees.[13][14]

Outside of its native range it is considered an

prescribed burning.[16] The trees also burn very readily, and dense populations were blamed for the rapid spread of wildfires in drought stricken Oklahoma and Texas in 2005 and 2006.[17] On the Great Plains, expanding red cedar populations are altering the plains ecosystem: a majority of the region's bird species are not present in areas where the tree's land cover exceeds 10 percent, and most small mammal species are not present where land cover exceeds 30 percent.[18]

Eastern juniper benefits from increased CO2 levels, unlike the grasses with which it competes. Many grasses are C4 plants that concentrate CO2 levels in their bundle sheaths to increase the efficiency of RuBisCO, the enzyme responsible for photosynthesis, while junipers are C3 plants that rely on (and may benefit from) the natural CO2 concentrations of the environment, although they are less efficient at fixing CO2 in general.[19]

Alterations of prairie ecosystems by J. virginiana include outcompeting forage species in pastureland. The low branches and wide base occupy a significant portion of land area. The thick foliage blocks out most light, so few plants can live under the canopy. The needles that fall raise the

nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), despite the common grassland species Andropogon gerardi having a far higher NUE during photosynthesis (PNUE).[19] The forests store much greater amounts of carbon in both biomass and soil, with most of the additional carbon stored aboveground. There is no significant difference in soil microbial activity.[19]

Cedar waxwings are fond of juniper berries. It takes about 12 minutes for their seeds to pass through the birds' guts, and seeds that have been consumed by this bird have levels of germination roughly three times higher than those of seeds the birds did not eat. Many other birds such as turkeys and bluebirds, along with many mammals such as rabbits, foxes, raccoons, and coyotes also consume them.[11][14]

Virginia Juniper's compact, evergreen foliage makes it favorable for bird nests and as a winter shelter location for birds and mammals.[14] Some species of small mammals live exclusively in red cedar forests. [22]

Pollen

The pollen of Juniperus virginiana var. virginiana is a known allergen. The nominate variety is native to Eastern North America, north of Mexico, with the pollen releasing at various points in the spring, variable by latitude and elevation.[23]

Uses

"Berries" of the 'Corcorcor' cultivar

The fragrant, finely grained, soft, brittle, very light, pinkish to brownish red

cedar chests". If correctly prepared, excellent English longbows, flatbows, and Native American sinew-backed bows can be made from it. It is marketed as "eastern redcedar" and "aromatic cedar". The best portions of the heartwood are one of the few woods that are suitable for making pencils, however the supply had so diminished by the 1940s that the wood of the incense-cedar largely replaced it.[11]

A log sawn in two and turned on a lathe, exposing the pale sapwood and the reddish heartwood

Part of the commercially available cedar oil is produced by steam distillation from wood shavings. It contains a wide variety of terpenes. The three major components, alpha-cedrene, thujopsene and cedrol, constitute more than 60% of the essential oil.[24][25][26] The fruits also yield an essential oil which contains mostly D-Limonene.[27]

The oil derived from foliage and twigs has two main constituents: safrole and limonene.[28] One minor compound is the podophyllotoxin, a non-alkaloid toxin lignan.[29]

Native American tribes have historically used poles of juniper wood to demarcate agreed tribal hunting territories. French traders named Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which denotes "red stick", from the reddish color of these poles. Some nations continue to use it ceremonially.[citation needed]

The Cahokia Woodhenge series of timber circles that the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in western Illinois erected were constructed of massive logs of eastern juniper. One iteration of such a circle, Woodhenge III, which is thought to have been constructed circa 1000 AD, had 48 posts in the circle of 410 feet (120 m) in diameter and a 49th pole in the center.[30]

Among many Native American cultures, the smoke of burning eastern juniper is believed to expel evil spirits prior to conducting a ceremony, such as a healing ceremony.[31]

During the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, the Prairie States Forest Project encouraged farmers to plant shelterbelts, i.e. wind breaks, of eastern juniper throughout the Great Plains of the US. The trees thrive in adverse conditions. Tolerant of both drought and cold, they grow well in rocky, sandy, and clayey soils. Competition between individual trees is minimal, and therefore they can be closely planted in rows, in which situation they still grow to full height, creating a solid windbreak in a short time.[32]

A number of cultivars have been selected for horticulture, including 'Canaertii' (narrow conical; female) 'Corcorcor' (with a dense, erect crown; female), 'Goldspire' (narrow conical with yellow foliage), and 'Kobold' (dwarf). Some cultivars previously listed under this species, notably 'Skyrocket', are actually cultivars of J. scopulorum.[33]

In the Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma Ozarks, eastern juniper is commonly used as a Christmas tree.

This is the most widely used wood for making blocks for recorders. There are numerous properties that it possesses that make it uniquely suitable for this, such as good moisture absorption, low expansion when wet (so it does not crack the recorder head), and mild antiseptic properties.

Eastern red cedar is considered effective as a shelter-belt tree and for erosion control. Being coniferous, red cedar has dense evergreen foliage which makes it an ideal windbreak. The tree's extensive root system allows it to survive drought, and helps to retain surrounding topsoil during dry, windy conditions.[14]

See also

  • Cedar wood
  • Eastern white cedar

References

  1. . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b Adams, Robert P. (1993). "Juniperus virginiana". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 2. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  3. ^ a b USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Juniperus virginiana". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  4. ^ BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  5. ^
  6. ^ a b c d Earle, Christopher J., ed. (2018). "Juniperus virginiana". The Gymnosperm Database.
  7. ^
  8. .
  9. ^ "Juniperus virginiana". Eastern OLDLIST. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  10. ^ Cooper, Jason A.; Becker, Charles W. (July 2009). Virginia's Timber Industry — An Assessment of Timber Product Output and Use, 2007 (PDF). Virginia Department of Forestry (Report). Southern Research Station, United States Forest Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-02-02. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  11. ^ a b c Barlow, Virginia (Winter 2004). "Species in the Spotlight: Eastern Redcedar, Juniperus virginiana". Northern Woodlands. 11 (43). Center for Northern Woodlands Education: 37. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
  12. ^ Yoder, K.S.; Biggs, A.R. "Cedar-Apple Rust, Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae". West Virginia University. Archived from the original on 2007-11-12.
  13. ^ "Species: Juniperus virginiana". www.fs.usda.gov. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  14. ^ a b c d "Juniperus virginiana L". www.srs.fs.usda.gov. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  15. ^ "Forest Plan" (PDF). fs.fed.us.
  16. ^ "Oklahoma Must Address Cedar Encroachment". Noble Research Institute. Ardmore, OK.
  17. ^ "Wildfires Rip Through Oklahoma". CNN. January 1, 2006. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
  18. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  19. ^ .
  20. .
  21. .
  22. ^ Reddin, C. J., & Krementz, D. G. (2016). Small Mammal Communities in Eastern Redcedar Forest. American Midland Naturalist, 175(1), 113–119. https://doi.org/10.1674/amid-175-01-113-119.1
  23. ^ "Eastern Red-Cedar Species Description". Pollen Library. Archived from the original on 1 Nov 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  24. ^ Adams, R. P. (1991). "Cedar Wood Oil — Analyses and Properties". Essential Oils and Waxes. Modern Methods of Plant Analysis. Vol. 12. pp. 159–173. .
  25. .
  26. .
  27. .
  28. .
  29. .
  30. ^ Iseminger, William R. "The Skywatchers of Cahokia". Mexicolore. Retrieved 2017-12-19.
  31. .
  32. ^ "USDA Fact Sheet" (PDF). ufl.edu.
  33. ]

External links