Juniper, Ashe

Common names: Ashe juniper, mountain cedar, post cedar, rock cedar, Ozark white cedar, Mexican juniper. J. asheii is a dioecious large shrub or small tree, 20-30 (rarely to 50) feet tall, usually single-stemmed for basal 3-20 feet, up to 1.6 feet dbh. Branches long, spreading to ascending, forming an open to dense, and irregular to rounded crown. Mexico: Coahuila; USA: Arkansas, Missouri (Ozark Mts.), Oklahoma, Texas (Edwards Plateau); at (rarely at 500) 2000-5000 feet elevation on limestone glades and bluffs, or along streambeds. It is exceedingly abundant on the Edwards Plateau, with dense populations covering millions of acres, but the disjunctive populations in the remainder of its range consist of largely pure stands that in most cases cover relatively small areas). Grows sometimes with Juniperus pinchotii, Pinus remota, Quercus spp.

LEAVES on lateral branchlets variably green, scale-like, decurrent, (slightly) imbricate, rhombic, often keeled, acute, with finely denticulate margins, 0.04-0.08 × 0.03-0.05 inches, with stomata on the abaxial side limited to decurrent leaf base, on the adaxial surface in two bands; glands obscure, resembling a small pimple, terminating a single resin cavity, without exudate.

POLLEN CONES numerous, terminal, solitary, subglobose to ovoid, 0.08-0.16 x 0.08 inches, yellow-green maturing to pink or light brown. SEED CONES maturing in 1 year, terminal on straight short branchlets, young cones pink glaucous, maturing dark blue, globose to broadly ovoid, 0.24-0.40 inches, succulent and resinous, with 1-2(rarely 3) seeds. Seeds broad ovoid, 0.16-0.24 x 0.12-0.18 inches, not flattened, lustrous yellow-brown to chestnut brown, with a lighter hilum. Cotyledons 2, juvenile leaves restricted to seedlings, decurrent, the free part 0.28-0.40 x 0.03-0.05 inches. The type variety has cones mostly 0.35 inches in diameter bearing one SEED, while variety ovate has cones mostly 0.24 inches in diameter bearing two seeds Similar species: J. monosperma usually has only one seed per cone, and unlike J. ashei, does not coppice.

BARK on small branches first pink turning gray and flaking; on trunk and large branches brown, weathering gray and exfoliating in thin strips; often the bark bears a gray-white fungus.

FOLIAGE BRANCHES numerous, irregular, not pendulous. Ultimate BRANCHLETS spreading to erect, stiff, 0.20-0.40 (rarely 0.80) × 0.04-0.05 inches, 4-sided in cross section (whip shoots occasionally 3-sided), covered with closely appressed leaves, persistent.