Juniperus macrocarpa

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Juniperus macrocarpa
Juniperus macrocarpa in Sardinia
Conservation status
Least Concern
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Pinophyta Class: Pinopsida Order: Pinales Family: Cupressaceae Genus: Juniperus Species: J. macrocarpa
Binomial name
Juniperus macrocarpa Sibth. & Sm.

Juniperus macrocarpa (Large-fruited Juniper, syn. J. oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa (Sibth. & Sm.) Ball) is a species of juniper, native across the northern Mediterranean region from southeastern Spain east to western Turkey and Cyprus, growing on coastal sand dunes from sea level up to 75 m altitude.^[1][2]

It is a spreading shrub 2-5 m tall, rarely a small tree up to 14 m tall. The leaves are broad lanceolate, produced in whorls of three, green, 12-20 mm long and 2-3 mm broad, with a double white stomatal band split by a green midrib on the inner surface. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are berry-like, green ripening in 18 months to orange-red with a variable pink waxy coating; they are spherical, 12-18 mm diameter, and have six fused scales in two whorls, three of the scales with a single seed. The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard seeds in their droppings. The pollen cones are yellow, 2-3 mm long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in late winter.^[1][2][3]

Despite its distinct morphology with large cones and broad leaves more like those of Juniperus drupacea, it is widely treated as a subspecies of Juniperus oxycedrus,^[2] though recent genetic studies^[4][1] have shown its DNA is distinct from that of J. oxycedrus.

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