Phoenician juniper

Juniperus phoenicea is a large shrub or small tree reaching 2–12 metres tall, with a trunk up to 1 metre diameter and a rounded or irregular crown. The leaves are of two forms, juvenile needle-like leaves 8-10 mm long on seedlings, and adult scale-leaves 0.5-2 mm long on older plants; they are arranged in opposite decussate pairs or whorls of three. It is largely monoecious, but some individual plants are dioecious. The cones are berry-like, 6-14 mm in diameter, orange-brown, occasionally with a pinkish waxy bloom, and contain 3-8 seeds; they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 2-4 mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring.

Juniperus phoenicea (Phoenicean Juniper or Arâr) is a juniper found throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal east to Turkey and Egypt, and also on Madeira and the Canary Islands, and on the mountains of western Saudi Arabia near the Red Sea. It mostly grows at low altitudes close to the coast, but reaches 2,400 m altitude in the south of its range in the Atlas Mountains. More

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