Juniperus deppeana Steud. var. pachyphloea Martinez   Cupressaceae (Cypress Family)                                                      Arizona, N. Mexico, Texas   Alligator Juniper

                                          April Photo

Plant Characteristics: Small tree to 30 ft. with blue-gray foliage, bark thick, red-brown, broken into conspicuous rectangular plates; lvs. of two kinds, the adult scale-like and denticulate on the margins with a resin droplet on the back, mostly opposite; fr. about ½ across, light brown with fibrous flesh, seeds mostly 3-4.

Habitat:  Known in American gardens only through its var. pachyphloea. (Bailey 126). Escape from cultivation or may have been planted near the UCI rowing center at Shellmaker Id.

Name:  Juniperus, the classical name.  (Bailey 124).  Named for F. Deppe, who collected in Mexico in 1828.  Greek, pachys, thick and Greek, phloios, bark of a tree.  (Jaeger 180, 194).  Pachyphloea, thick bark.

General:  Only one plant known and this near the UCI rowing center at Shellmaker Island.  I suspect that someone connected with UCI rowing planted it many years ago.  (my comment).       Evergreen trees or shrubs of about 60 species, almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere.  (Bailey 124).         Junipers are the most widely used woody plants in the West.  There is a form for almost every landscape use.  (Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984.  p 339).

Text Ref:  Bailey 126; Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984. p 339.

Photo Ref:  April-May 01 # 9,10,11,18; April-June 03 #7.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found:  April 2001.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 528.

Plant specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004. 

Last edit.8/4/05.  

                           April Photo                                                                 May Photo