Juniperus excelsa

Greek juniper is in the cypress or Cupressaceae family and is native to the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and Lebanon, Jordan and the Caucasus . Species is a large shrub or tree up to 20 m tall, broadly conical to rounded or irregular crown.

A subspecies, the Persian juniper (J. excels subsp. polycarpos) occurs in the mountains of Iran east to northwestern Pakistan, and in an isolated population in the Jebal Akhdar mountains of Oman.

• Leaves have 2 forms: Adult leaves are scale-like, 0.6–3.0 mm long , tight against the branches, opposite in desiccate pairs (occasionally whorls of 3); juvenile leaves on seedlings are needle-like, 8–10 mm long.
• Species is largely dioecious (separate male and female plants); male cones are 3–4 mm long, terminal, ovoid-oblong, yellow-green, maturing yellow-brown, shedding pollen in early spring; female cones are berry-like, 6–10 mm in diameter, blue-black with a whitish waxy bloom, terminal on branches, maturing in 2 years and falling soon after ripe.