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Juniperus conferta Parl.

Modern name

Juniperus rigida var. conferta (Parl.) Patschke

Synonyms

J. litoralis Maxim.

An evergreen prostrate shrub with angular young shoots densely clothed with leaves. Leaves in whorls of three, awl-shaped, 14 to 58 in. long, 116 in. or less wide; very sharply pointed, pale glossy green and keeled beneath, grooved above with one broad glaucous line of stomata along the middle. Fruits globose, 14 to 12 in. wide, black covered with glaucous bloom and containing three ovoid, triangular seeds.

Native of the sea-coasts of Japan, especially on the sand dunes of Hakodate Bay in Hokkaido, where it was found by Maximowicz in 1861. Introduced by Wilson in 1914. It should be a useful plant for growing near the sea and certainly makes an excellent low ground cover. Botanically it is most closely allied to J. rigida, especially in the grooved leaves with one stomatic stripe above and in the three-seeded fruit, but that species is a small tree with much more thinly disposed leaves. In habit J. conferta more resembles J. procumbens, a species well distinguished by the green midrib dividing the stomatic upper surface into two stripes. J. procumbens has been grown erroneously under the name of “J. litoralis”, which is really a synonym of J. conferta. Young plants of J. conferta have their leaves much less densely set on the branchlets than adult ones.


Genus

Juniperus

Other species in the genus