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California Juniper

The Juniperus Californica is commonly known as California Juniper, as well as Desert White Cedar

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Growing Regions

California juniper is distributed from Shasta County, California, south as far as Baja California Norte [6,21]. California juniper occurs through the inner Coast Ranges and in interior cismontane southern California to the western slope of the southern Sierra Nevada. It occurs on desert slopes from the western edge of the Colorado Desert and Joshua Tree National Monument to Kern County, California [25]. California juniper also occurs in isolated parts of Nevada and Arizona, near their border with California [7]. It is cultivated in Hawaii [41].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of California juniper is Juniperus californica Carr. [25,35]. There are no recognized varieties or subspecies.

California juniper is codominant primarily with singleleaf pinyon (Pinus
monophylla) in the pinyon-juniper type.  This type occupies lower
elevations than the Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) type [15,38].
California juniper is an understory associate in the blue oak (Quercus
douglasii)-narrowleaf goldenweed (Haplopappus linearfolius) community
found in the central and southern coastal foothills [1,13].  It also
occurs frequently as a scattered tree in grasslands, in interior live
oak woodlands (Quercus wislizenii), and microsites in chaparral [6].  On
the desert side of mountain ranges, it is associated with desert
chaparral [18].  California juniper is an indicator of Joshua tree
(Yucca brevifolia) woodland [29] and occurs in widely dispersed small
groves in southern California [38].

California juniper is listed as a codominant or dominant species in the
following classifications:

Desert scrub communities in the Sonoran Desert of California and Arizona
  [8].
General vegetation communities of southern California [17].
General vegetation plant associations of southern California [28]. 
Desert vegetation community types of the Mojave Desert of southern California
  [37].
Pinyon-juniper community types of San Bernadino Mountains of California
  [40].

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Cope, Amy B. 1992. Juniperus californica. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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