Rocky Mountain Juniper
Rocky Mountain juniper threads blue-green columns through Nebraska’s western escarpments, where it can meet and hybridize with eastern redcedar.
Artwork inspired by Eugene Kingman
The fleshy-looking berries are cones whose waxy bloom softens their blue color, and dense foliage provides winter cover and food. In the Ash Hollow region, overlap with eastern redcedar can complicate field identification.
Leave cones for wildlife and avoid scrambling on fragile slopes for a photograph. Compare form, foliage color, cone size, and location rather than relying on one twig. Evergreen; blue cones often mature in autumn.
- Best clue
- Narrow blue-green juniper with scale leaves and powdery blue berry-like cones
- Habitat
- Pine Ridge, Wildcat Hills, rocky escarpments, and dry western slopes
- Regional status
- Native western Nebraska conifer
Quick guide
- Look up
- Blue-green narrow crown
- Confirm
- Scale-like leaves
Separate Rocky Mountain Juniper from look-alikes
- Crown and bark
- Look for narrow blue-green juniper with scale leaves and powdery blue berry-like cones when identifying Rocky Mountain Juniper.
- Leaf, bud, or fruit
- Check rocky western slope together with scale-like leaves before accepting the identification.
- Site agreement
- Use Pine Ridge, Wildcat Hills, rocky escarpments, and dry western slopes in Nebraska, United States as habitat context and check Evergreen; blue cones often mature in autumn.
- Record without damage
- In the field, compare form, foliage color, cone size, and location rather than relying on one twig.
Good to know
The blue “berries” are actually fleshy cones, and overlap with eastern redcedar means location, whole-tree form, foliage, and cone size should be compared together.
Notice these
- Blue-green narrow crown
- Scale-like leaves
- Powdery blue cones
- Rocky western slope