Juniperus durangensis

Martínez 1946

Common names

Cedro, tascate (Zanoni and Adams 1979).

Taxonomic notes

No synonyms. Type location is Puerto de Santo Domingo, 30 km E of El Salto, Durango; only 11 additional collections are recorded (Farjon 2005).

Description

Shrubs and trees to 5 m tall. Multistemmed, branching near base, with irregular crowns. Bark ash-brown, forming long fibrous strips. Branches ascending-erect to spreading, terminal whips recurved, bark red-brown and smooth or with peeling scales. Angle of branching on ultimate twigs about 60°. Scale leaves mostly opposite, the leaves on ultimate twigs resembling a chain of beads; scale leaves 1-2 mm long, margins finely toothed (20X hand lens), dark gray-green. Seed cones gibbous, 6-7 × 4-6 mm, with soft pulp. Seeds 1-3(-4) per cone, subconic to oval, acuminate to obtuse, 3-4 × 2-3 mm, dark red-brown with shallow grooves; hilum up to half the length of the seed (Zanoni and Adams 1979).

Distribution and Ecology

Mexico: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, Sonora, Zacatecas; at 1600-2900 m elevation. Grows in Pinus-Quercus or Pinus-Quercus-Juniperus-Arctostaphylos forests. It is apparently rare throughout its range and thus is probably vulnerable to extinction or, at least, a significant loss of genetic diversity, but further study of its distribution is warranted (Zanoni and Adams 1979, Farjon 2005). Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.03.03.

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

Martínez. 1946. Anal. Inst. Biol. Mexico 17:94-96.

See also

Farjon (2005) provides a detailed account, with illustrations.