Saturday 20 November 2010

Juniper

Amongst the trees which flank Red Rise Brook above Markway bridge is a Juniper tree, boughs heavily weighed with berries, some dark purple, ripe for picking, others still juvenile and green. The berries aren't really berries, rather cones with fleshy and merged scales. The Juniper (Juniperus communis) is becoming an increasingly rare evergreen species in the British countryside, suffering from changes in farming practice, rabbits and uncontrolled grazing by livestock and deer. This is the only one I know of.

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