This variety of the Chinese Juniper was discovered by C.S. Sargent, a famous horticulturist from the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, MA on the coast of Hokkaido, and it is native along all the shores of Japan and on rocky cliffs there. Its needles are mostly scale-like in 3's and are sort of soft and bluish-green. The branchlets are 4-angled and branches have a whip-like appearance. When I have seen this conifer in some landscapes, usually professional ones, in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic of the USA, it usually is a female (pistillate) plant with nice "berries" that are bluish in color. It is sold by some larger, diverse, conventional nurseries, but I have not found it to be commonly planted around where I have lived. It is resistant to Juniper Phomopsis Blight, a fungus that can attack junipers, especially groundcover types, with cool, wet springs. This is one of a whole bunch of East Asian woody plants named after Sargent.

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