One Seed Juniper

One Seed Juniper. . One-seed juniper trees are the park's longest living residents. These ancient trees are mostly found along the ridges and are even growing right out of the high rocky cliffs. The juniper, distinctive for its stringy gray bark and snarly twisted growth, has been a part of the park's landscape for thousands of years. The oldest juniper trees in the park are over 1,000 years old! They sprouted from a seed when indigenous people traveled through and camped here. Not a tall or dramatic tree like its Colorado neighbors in the pine family, it has an amazing ability to survive. It grows very slowly above ground- only about six inches a year with normal precipitation. And it has the unique ability to stop growing during particularly dry periods, then resume when conditions are better. Below ground, its root system works much harder. A young tree (less than two feet tall) can have a tap root that is more than 10 times that. Mature trees can have a taproot over 200 feet long!, Caption: Berries of the juniper are the tree's seed cones. They are a vital food source for park residents like the Townsend's solitaire. American Indians used it medicinally for a variety of ailments. The berries were used in food and medicine, cooked, or ground into a powder or even chewed like gum. , Garden of the Gods Park , Colorado Springs , Olympic City USA ,