Juniperus communis : Common Juniper

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Gymnospermae (naked seed)

Class: Coniferae (cone bearing)

Family: Cupressaceae (Cypress Family Family)

Genera: Juniperus (Juniper) (Celt. root of name is yoini = rough)

Species: communis (Lat. communis = shared by all or many)

English Name(s):

Common Juniper,

First Nation Names:

deetree jak

Structure:

• Low, spreading or horizontal shrub. Sometimes forming large patches.

Leaves:

• Awl-shaped, needle-like leaves 5-10mm long.
• Often in whorles of 3.

Reproductive Parts:

• Cones of 2 types; male and female.
• Female cones, fleashy and berry-like. Green when young maturing to blue.
• Male cones, small, not berry-like.
• The berry-like cone has a pore in the bottom through which the pollin can enter and firtilize the seeds.

Seed:

• Female cone looks like a blue or blue-grey coloured berry.

Not to Be Confused With:

• J.horizontalis the other species of Juniper in our region is similar in habit but is easily distinguished by its scale-like leaves.
• At treeline, Picea mariana (Black Spruce) sometimes grows in a shrub form and could look like J.communis but Black Spruce never has blue berry-like cones.

Physiology:

Life Cycle:

• Perennial
• Berries take a couple of years to mature.

Seasonal Cycle:

• Evergreen.

Animal Uses:

• The berries (female cones) are readily eaten by most animals.

Habitat:

• Dry slopes, open Aspen woods, clearings, alpine.

Modern:

Industrial:

• A scented Wax which can be used for candles can be obtained by boiling the waxy coating off the berries.
• Berries yield a brown dye.

Medicinal:

• A volatile oil distiled from the dried berries is used to make the OTC drug Odrinil to increase urine flow. The oil can be used as a flavouring as well.
• Berries used to treat stomach pains. 5 berryies are chewed raw or steeped for 15 mins. in 500ml water and infusion drunk. Repeated for several days.
• Disinfectant made with 15 crushed berries are soaked in 250ml alchohol for 24 hours. Then sprayed in room where patients with infectious diseases stayed. Dilute by 1/2 with water and use as a garggle.
• Leaves of Junper contain the antibiotic podophyllotoxin which has been found to be active against tumors.

Food:

• Caution: The berries are not recomended for pregnant women and much use can cause kidney damage.
• Berries can be roasted at 120C until dark brown ground to pawder and used as a coffee substitute.
• Berries can be used to flavour foods, meet, and stews and un turkey stuffing are the most common uses.
• Berries can greatly improve the flavour of spruce beer.
• Berries used in Germany to flavour sauerkraut.
• In France and India the berries are fermented with barley to make a kind of beer called 'genevrette'.
• The berries are the main flavouring in Gin.
• The Berries can be eaten raw or used in tea.
• To flavour Gin 1kg berries to 400L of Gin.

Traditional Gwich'in:

Folklore:

Industrial:

Medicinal:

Food:

Traditional Other:

Folklore:

• Burning Juniper during childbirth will prevent fairies from substituting the baby with a changeling for the new born.
• Cristians concidered it a blessing having sheltered Mary and Jesus in the flight to Egypt.
• In dreams the plant itself was concidered unlucky especieally if one was sick. Dreaming of picking the berries in winter meant properity.
• In Germany and Italy it was thought to be a life giving tree, thought to disperse evil spirits and protect from witchcraft, as witches encountering a juniper were compelled to count all its leaves.
• The Greeks burned the berries at funerals to ward off demons, The green roots were smoked as incense on offerings to the God of Hell.
• The Victorian language of the flowers concidered Junipers a symbol of asylum and protection.
• To dream of the actual berries meant the dreamer would arrive at a great honours and become an important person.
• Used in the Sun Dance Cerimony of the Blackfoot.
• Was used as a thief catcher in an elaborite ritual.

Industrial:

• Bark used by Ojibwa for weaving mats.

Medicinal:

• A handful of young sprigs was covered in boiling water steeped overnight and the infusion drunk to cure or prevent scurvy.
• Alternatively for arthritis or rheumatism heated damp bundles were bound to aching parts 3-4 times a day.
• An infusion of the berries was drunk cold every morning for a week to treat lumbago or impaired digestion.
• Branches used as fumigants, deoderizers, and cleansers in connection with sickness.
• Brewing or burning boughs was thought to purify a house and protect it from infection and bad spirits after illness or death.
• Damp branches were spread on glowing embers and those suffering from arthritis or rheumatism were made to recline on them.
• Leaves (needles or scales) were crushed, dampened, heated over the fire and bound to the jaw over an aching tooth. Then kept warm there with a hot stone.

Food: