#junipers

Autumn at Juniper Valley

A few people had commented about seeing their names here and honestly ? You're all too great to be put in a bracket. I couldn't let you sweep all the polls, that doesn't seem fair to the others.

Mixed juniper forest

Junipers are tough, hardy little conifer trees and are masters of the “well nothing else can live here but I can” strategy. They are quite widespread and live in dry, scrub ecosystems in a range of elevations and tend to do quite well for themselves there (sometimes to the detriment of other species tbh).

They have either needle-like or scale-like leaves, depending on the species. Some species even have both and can vary based on maturity or environmental conditions.

They also have seed bearing cones that vaguely resemble a small fruit (the “juniper berries”), meaning they’ve basically co opted the seed dispersal strategy primarily used by angiosperms (meaning animals will consume and disperse the seeds)