Eastern Juniper
The Eastern Juniper (Juniperus virginiana), is a widespread North American species of juniper, often also called Eastern Redcedar (though it is unrelated to the cedars). It is found from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, east of the Great Plains. Further west, it is replaced by the related Rocky Mountain Juniper (J. scopulorum).
Eastern Juniper is a dense slow-growing tree that may never become more than a bush on poor soil but is ordinarily from 6-15 m (20-50 feet) tall with a short trunk from 30-60 cm (1-2 feet) in diameter. On bottomlands in southern states of the USA, it may live to be 300 years old, reach 25 m (80 ft) tall, and more than 120 cm (4 feet) in diameter. Its sky blue 3-6 mm berry-like cones are mature in 6-8 months; furnish winter food for wildlife and the tiny wingless seeds are scattered by birds, and are also used to flavor gin and as a kidney medicine. This species is a host for Apple rust disease.
The Eastern Juniper is a pioneer invader, which means that it is one of the first trees to repopulate cleared, eroded, or otherwise damaged land. The tree can often be found along highways and near recent construction sites. Due to the dust bowl in the 1930s, the Prarie States Forest Project encouraged farmers to plant shelterbelts (wind breaks) made of Eastern Juniper throughout the Great Plains. They are still planted for this purpose.
The fine-grained brittle pinkish red to brownish red wood, surrounded by a thin layer of white sapwood, is fragrant, very light and very durable in soil. It is in demand for pencils, cigar boxes, fence posts, poles, woodenware, canoes, and lining for clothes chests and closets. Moths avoid it. Juniper oil is distilled from the wood, twigs and leaves. Because of its shreddy reddish bark, which peels off in narrow fibrous strips, French traders named Baton Rouge, Louisiana (meaning "red stick") after poles of Eastern Juniper set up in the area by local Indians to mark hunting territiories.
