Juniperus oxycedrus, vernacularly called Cade, cade juniper, prickly juniper, prickly cedar, or sharp cedar, is a species of juniper, native across the Mediterranean region from Morocco and Portugal, north to southern France, east to westernmost Iran, and south to Lebanon and Israel, growing on a variety of rocky sites from sea level up to 1600 m elevation. The specific epithetoxycedrus means "sharp cedar" and this species may have been the original cedar or cedrus of the ancient Greeks.
Description
Juniperus oxycedrus is very variable in shape, forming a spreading shrub tall to a small erect tree tall. It has needle-like leaves in whorls of three; the leaves are green, long and broad, with a double white stomatal band on the inner surface. It is usually 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, diameter, and have three or six fused scales in 1-2 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, long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in late winter or early spring. As to be expected from the wide range, J. oxycedrus is very variable. One recent study splits it into three species, though other authorities do not accept this:
Juniperus oxycedrus L. - Western prickly juniper. Southwest Europe, in eastern Portugal and Spain east to southern France, northwest Italy, Corsica, and Sardinia, and northwest Africa from Morocco east to Tunisia. Leaves long, narrow-based; cones smooth.
Juniperus deltoides R.P.Adams - Eastern prickly juniper. Central Italy east to Iran and Israel. Leaves long, broad-based; cones with raised scale edges.
Subspecies
An additional variety or subspecies J. oxycedrus var. badia H.Gay is distinguished on the basis of larger cones, tinged purple when mature; it is described from northern Algeria, and also reported from Portugal and Spain. A further species Juniperus macrocarpa, confined to Mediterranean coastal sands, is more distinct but has also often been treated as a subspecies of Prickly Juniper, as J. oxycedrus subsp. macrocarpa; it differs in the broader leaves wide, and larger cones diameter. Other close relatives of J. oxycedrus include Juniperus brevifolia on the Azores, Juniperus cedrus on the Canary Islands and Juniperus formosana in eastern Asia.
