English: Utah juniper
Hopi: hohu
Hualapai: joq
Spanish: Enebro de Utah
Natural history
Utah juniper occurs as a shrub or tree from 2 to 7 meters tall. Its range in Colorado is almost entirely limited to the Western Slope of the Rockies from 4300 to 7,700 feet where it can be found on dry and rocky hillsides among Pinyon pine and sagebrush communities. From the Western Slope, its range radiates to the Colorado Plateau and beyond to most of the western states. It is also often found interspersed with Pinyon pine playing an essential role in the formation of the iconic pinyon-juniper woodlands that are so emblematic of much of the semiarid Intermountain West. Its leaves are evergreen and overlapping, resembling tiny scales more than typical leaves. Like all conifers, Utah juniper does not produce true fruit, and what are commonly referred to as juniper “berries” are actually fleshy seed cones more closely related to those produced by pine trees and their relatives.
Tree-forming junipers in Colorado can often be easily recognized by their fibrous, shredding bark, but Utah and Rocky Mountain Juniper can be difficult to differentiate at first glance, especially where their ranges overlap. However, with careful observation the two can be readily distinguished. Utah juniper has comparatively stouter terminal twig tips oriented laterally to upward and have larger seed cones than those of Rocky Mountain juniper, whose terminal twig tips are narrower and drooping.
Human history and use
In addition to the use of its seed cones as a food source and its bark as a fiber material, juniper ash obtained by burning and collecting fresh green foliage is a traditional nixtamalization ingredient in indigenous blue corn preparations in the Four Corners region. Nixtamalization is an ancient technique in which an alkali substance, such as ash or mineral lime, is added during cooking. This makes corn more easily digestible, its nutrients more bioavailable, and its products more easily formed into a workable dough.
Juniper has also long been an important source of fuel wood and there is perhaps no smell more evocative of the arid American West then that of juniper smoke.
“One breath of juniper smoke, like the perfume of sagebrush after rain, evokes in magical catalysis, like certain music, the space and light and clarity and piercing strangeness of the American West. Long may it burn.” -Edward Abbey
References:
Abbey, E. 1968. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. New York, NY: Touchstone.
Ackerfield, J. 2022. Flora of Colorado. Fort Worth, TX: Brit Press.
Begay, D. J. 2017. Quantification and Comparison of Calcium in Juniper Ash and Soil Used in Traditional Navajo Foods. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.
Burns, R. M., and B. H. Honkala. 1990. Silvics of North America. Retrieved from Silvics Manual Volume 1-Conifers and Volume 2-Hardwoods: https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag_654/table_of_contents.htm (2024, November 16)
Carter, J. L. 1997. Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico. Silver City, NM: Mimbres Publishing.
Vazquez-Carrillo, G. et al. 2024. Exploring the influence of wood ash, maize cob ash, and tequesquite (alkaline rock) on nixtamalization of maize. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science 37: 100972.
Photo credit:
Photos by Mike Jacob.