Plant · P-1008

Alligator Juniper

Juniperus deppeana

Alligator juniper is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen conifer named for its thick, deeply furrowed, plated bark that resembles reptile skin. It grows on rocky, sun-baked slopes and ridges from the mountains of the southwestern United States south into Mexico, tolerating drought, heat, cold and poor, rocky soil once established. Its sweet, resinous, fleshy cones are eaten fresh or dried and ground into meal, and feed a wide range of birds and mammals through the year.