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Utah Juniper

Natural History

Utah Juniper is a member of the Cypress Family. It is a large tree with gray, shaggy bark which grows to 20 feet in height. Leaves are yellowish green and scale like and grow to 1/16 inches in length. The plant typically grows in dry hills, plains, plateaus and mountains in pinyon-juniper forests at elevations between 3000 - 7500 feet. Cones are reddish brown and covered with a grayish green, waxy coating and contain 1 or 2 seeds to 3/4 inches in diameter.
 

Native Americans used the berries of the Utah Juniper for beads and medicine and wood for firewood, posts and hogans.

Utah Juniper is the most common type of juniper in Arizona. It can be distinguished from the One Seeded Juniper by the fact that it typically has a single prominent trunk, where the One Seeded Juniper has multiple branched trunks growing from ground level.

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