Juniperus oxycedrus

Cade juniper or prickly juniper is in the cypress or Cupressaceae family and is native across the Mediterranean region from Morocco and Portugal, north to southern France, east to westernmost Iran and south to Lebanon and Israel. It grows on a variety of sites from sea level up to 1600 m in elevation.

• The tree is variable in shape from a spreading shrub up to 3 m tall to a small tree up to 15 m tall, with some authors dividing the species into further subspecies.
• Leaves are needle-like and in whorls of three, green, 5–20 mm long and 1–2 mm broad, with a double white stomatal band on the inner surface.
• Species is usually dioecious (having separate male and female plants); pollen cones are yellow, 2–3 mm long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in late winter or early spring; seed cones are berry-like, green, ripening in 18 months to orange-red with a variable pink waxy coating; they are spherical, 7–12 mm in diameter, and have 3 or 6 fused scales in 1-2 whorls, three of the scales with a single seed.