Juniper Berry :: Botany

Juniper BerryJuniper is a short cone- port shrub whose fruit and oil provides a flavoring agent apply extensively in the food, perfume, and soap industries. Juniper berry is probably high hat known as the unique flavoring agent of gin, an important component of the dry martini, a popular intoxicant and a putative calmative august by western culture for over 300 geezerhood. As a medicinal remedy, juniper has a long history of use engaged as a treatment for numerous diseases by ancient Grecian and Arab healers, as well as Native American Indians.(2) Juniper berries consecrate been used since the 16th century in herbal medicines. They are fertile in vitamin C, volatile oils and other nutrients. (11) The junipers are also used in aromatherapy, which is the use of essential oils through inhalation, massage, bathing, or ingestion to create right-hand(a) health and beauty. The science of aromatherapy can be traced back over 5000 years to the Egyptians. The practice of employing t he essences of plants for medicinal and therapeutic beauty treatments is thousands of years old. (10) The scientific comprise of juniper is Juniperus communis. It belongs to the family Cupressaceae. Common names include juniper berry, genepro, and enebro. (7) The genus has nigh 60 to 70 species of aromatic evergreen trees or shrubs distri only whened throughout the Federal Hemisphere. (6) About 15 species occur in North America. (7) Juniper leafing may be scale-like, needle-like, or both, and it often has a distinctive perfume that can be detected from quite a distance. (1) The juvenile leaves of a juniper are needle-like and the older leaves are scale-like. Mature leaves are awl-shaped, spreading, and lay in pairs or in whorls of three. Some species have small, scale-like leaves, often bearing oil glands that are pressed closely to the moveed or four-angled branchlets. antheral and female reproductive structures usually are borne on separate plants (6), so only female trees have fruit. (1) The reddish brown or bluish cones are fleshy and berrylike and often have a grayish, elastic covering. (6) Their fruits are soft and look like blue berries, and are round cones, but they are softer than most and they have a blue, red, or dogshit color. They mature in I to 3 seasons and contain I to 12 seeds, usually 3. (6) There are three junipers native to the Pacific Northwest, but chances are good that western juniper is the only one you willing see.