Utah juniper, Juniperus osteosperma (46671043752)

Description:

Description: Utah juniper, Juniperus osteosperma, California, White Mountains, Deep Springs Valley drainage, elevation 2079 m (6820 ft). This is the common juniper of the Intermountain Region of the western United States, and is nearly confined to the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and adjacent northern Mojave Desert at elevations of 1300-2600 meters (4300-8600). Around the edges of this range, it can occasionally be hard to separate from surrounding species such as J. occidentalis, J. californica, and J. monosperma. Utah juniper forms part of the familiar pinyon-juniper woodland vegetation in the mountains where it overlaps with singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) in the west, and with Colorado pinyon pine (Pinus edulis) in the eastern part of its range. Here near its southwestern limit, it tends to prefer a lower elevation band (especially in carbonate rock areas) than the more cold-tolerant singleleaf pinyon pine, and so can dominate the lowest edges of the pinyon-juniper zone, while pinyon pine becomes the only tree at the higher elevations, up to almost 3000 meters (10000 feet) on favorable sites. In some of the higher Great Basin valleys to the northeast, Utah Juniper will extend down onto the valley floors as a pure juniper woodland. Date: 2 May 2017, 13:07. Source: Utah juniper, Juniperus osteosperma. Author: Jim Morefield from Nevada, USA. Camera location37° 20′ 11.58″ N, 118° 06′ 51.37″ W View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap 37.336550; -118.114270.