Rocky Mountain Juniper Tree
The Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum, Sarg.) has stout twigs and limbs, usually a short trunk with several main limbs carrying the top. Its foliage is often pale grey-green -a fashionable colour on the Western plains and foothills. It climbs to elevations of over 5,000 feet, and few soils are too poor and too arid to support it. It follows the Rocky Mountains from Alberta to Texas on the eastern slopes; on the western slopes it enters Washington, Oregon and California.The larger fruit, requiring two years to ripen, the broader head, the stouter branches and twigs, the paler foliage, and the shreddy bark distinguish this species from the true red juniper which meets it on the hither boundaries of the Rockies, and from which it was but recently separated by botanists.