Juniperus bermudiana description

A cultivated tree [C. Esveld].

Bark on a cultivated tree [source unknown].

Bermuda. It's a small place, about 30 km east to west.

Juniperus bermudiana L. 1753

Common Names

Bermuda cedar, Bermuda juniper.

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: J. oppositifolia Moench 1794, J. pyramidalis Salisb. 1796, Sabina bermudiana (L.) Antoine 1857, J. virginiana var. bermudiana (L.) Vasey 1876 (Farjon 1998).

Description

Tree to 15 m tall. Bark thin, exfoliating in strips. Leafy branchlets 2-4 cm long and 1.3-1.6 mm wide, with a branching angle of 30-35°. Scale leaves opposite, so branchlets are 4-sided, leaves overlapping by 0.4-0.5 times their length, green, decurrent on young plants and on rapidly growing shoots but otherwise scale-like, about 1 mm long, tips obtuse to acute, rounded on the back and tightly appressed. Glands on scale leaves inconspicuous, elongated, sunken, extending almost to the leaf tip. Seed cones dark blue with a bloom, subglobose to reniform, 4-5 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, 1-2(-3) seeds per cone (Adams 1995).

Range

Bermuda Island (approx. 32°20' N, 64°45' W) (Adams 1995) in temperate, lowland, open forest. Populations occur on limestone-derived soils on hillsides. Naturalized on St. Helena. Stands are being established on government land and on Nonsuch Island, a small island at the eastern end of Bermuda (Anonymous [no date]).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Formerly (mostly the 16th to mid-20th centuries) it was felled for housing, shipbuilding, furniture, and export (Rueger and von Wallmenich 1996).

It is a moderately common ornamental tree in warm-temperate and subtropical climates.

Observations

Best seen at Paget Marsh Nature Reserve (see Remarks).

Remarks

The species is critically endangered in habitat due to defoliation and mortality caused by two scale insects, Lepidosaphes newsteadi and Carulaspis minima, that were introduced frrom the mainland U.S. sometime prior to 1942. In 1955 it was estimated that 90% of the trees had been killed; by 1978, the number was 99% (Adams 1995).

The following is from a WWF (2001) draft document:

"Currently, some ten percent of the [Bermuda subtropical conifer forest] area is covered by forest or woodland (Procter and Fleming 1999). Within this, only very small and fragmented areas of natural habitat survive. An estimated 95 percent of the surviving population of native Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) was destroyed between 1946 and 1951 (Rueger and von Wallmenich 1996) ... Subsequent reforestation using a scale-resistant strain has returned the cedar to roughly ten percent of its former abundance (Procter and Fleming 1999), though these efforts have been hampered by the introduction of fast-growing casuarinas and other exotics into much of the cedar habitat (Sterrer 1995). ...

"Bermuda holds the distinction of having passed the first conservation laws in the New World, protecting the cahow (Pterodroma cahow) and other birds as early as 1616 (Sterrer 1998) and limiting the uses of native cedar as early as 1622 (Rueger and von Wallmenich 1996). A comprehensive and well-managed protected areas system currently exists, comprising 12 nature reserves that cover some 48 hectares, as well as 63 parks (Procter and Fleming 1999). The 25-acre Paget Marsh Nature Reserve is the best surviving example of native cedar, palmetto, and mangrove forests."

Citations

Anonymous. [no date]. 2-40.html. http://www.unep-wcmc.org/species/tree_study/americas/2-40.html (14-Oct-2002).

Procter, D., and L. V. Fleming (eds.). 1999. Biodiversity: the UK Overseas Territories. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Rueger, B. F. and T. N. von Wallmenich. 1996. Human impact on the forests of Bermuda: the decline of endemic cedar and palmetto since 1609, recorded in the Holocene pollen record of Devonshire Marsh. Journal of Paleolimnology 16: 59-66.

Sterrer, W. 1995. Bermuda's natural history in a nutshell. In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium of "Fauna & Flora of the Atlantic Islands", Funchal-October 1993. Boletim do Museo Municipal do Funchal, Suplemento No. 4.

Sterrer, W. 1998. How many species are there in Bermuda? Bulletin of Marine Science 62(23): 809-840.

[WWF] World Wildlife Fund. 2001. Terrestrial Ecoregions -- Bermuda subtropical conifer forests (NA0301). http://www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/na/na0301_full.html (14-Oct-2002).