Common juniper - Juniperus communis. Family Cypressaceae.
Juniper trees in the swamps? Unbelievable! The idea of it is usually associated with dry habitats: dunes, cliffs, sparse coniferous forests, edges, forested mountain slopes. Of dryland ecotopes, alvars - dry seaside heaths with sparse juniper - are particularly interesting. The Alvars are a product of our era, and were created by humans and sheep. People cut down the forests, and animals completed the destruction of the trees by eating all but the juniper. Now Baltic alvars have even become the emblem of the Baltics.
Back to the marshes, however. Where else does this lover of dry calcareous soils and abundant light find a shelter? It turns out that common juniper is abundant not only under the tree canopy of forest bogs, but also on the ridges of aapa bogs. Of its marshy havens, the aapa marshes are of course particularly interesting. There, among the abundance of open water lakes, on narrow high and dry ridges lushly grows juniper common, but under one condition - good flow.
And now there is no longer any contradiction. In aapa bogs, common juniper is most often shrub-shaped, less often candle-shaped with a single trunk. But in the most favorable conditions, the common juniper is a tree up to 12 m high. It grows slowly, with individual trees reaching 500 years of age. The juniper tree is most often cone- or egg-shaped. The reddish-brown twigs of the common juniper are studded with needles and sessile globular fruits - cone berries (Fig. 18). Fruits are black, with a syzygic patina, covered with interlocked scales. They mature in the 2nd or 3rd year after pollination. Therefore, on one juniper bush, you can see both green and black fruits at the same time. The taste of mature juniper fruit is sweet-spicy, with a very pleasant aroma. They are eagerly eaten by birds, and so the seeds are spread to new homes.
The habitat of the common juniper is Eurasian circumpolar: it is abundant in the taiga and forest-steppe zones of the European part of the USSR, and is also found in Western Siberia. Common juniper emits a lot of phytoncides, so the air in its habitat is clean and sterile.
The medicinal raw material of juniper is cone berries, and the needles and wood are used in other ways. The fleshy cones of juniper contain essential oil, glucose, resin, wax, glycosides, organic acids (formic and acetic); in the bark - tannins; in the needles and cones - vitamin C (in the fruit - up to 0.056 %, and in conifers - up to 0.250 %). Essential oil of common juniper has a strong local irritant effect.
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Ingestion of large doses of juniper causes first excitation of the nervous system and then inhibition. Dry distillation yields Oleum cadinum, used as a distraction agent.
Juniper fruit has a pronounced diuretic and anti-inflammatory effect. They are part of many diuretic teas that are drunk for edema, kidney and bladder disorders. The diuretic effect is given by the essential oil terpineol; it also helps to increase intestinal peristalsis, bile secretion and increased secretion of gastric juice. Therefore, the infusion of common juniper stimulates the appetite and improves digestion. Fruits are also used as a choleretic and expectorant, alcohol tinctures or juniper oil rubbed sore joints, treat gout. The raw fruit is said to help with stomach ulcers and the juice is said to help with stomach pains. Common juniper is very popular in Tibetan medicine. "Common juniper with other plants mixed with sugar... treat kidney damage, urinary retention, aching lower back pain, weakness in the legs and kidney fever without residue," the Jude-shi narrated. Further (Ibid): "If baths in hot springs do not help, make a steam bath of 'from the five amritas' which... of old bones cure stiffness with fever, combined with wind agitation, and intermittent colic." "The five amritas are rhododendron, juniper, ephedra, myricaria and cold wormwood. "Steam" ancient Tibetan medicine men called baths, in the hot water of which a person was immersed and covered head to toe with a cloth. Recommendations for the use of hot baths with juniper gives and modern medicine for the treatment of rheumatism and gout.
Common juniper is also used in the food industry. Its dried fruit contains up to 40% grape sugar. Juniper sugar is extracted from the fruit and used to make vodka, beer, morsels; and in England it is used to make gin - juniper vodka. Juniper is also known as a spice. In French cuisine, for example, fruits for flavor are added to meat and poultry dishes (no more than 7-8 berries per 1 kg of meat).
Juniper wood is strong, with narrow annual rings; the core is grayish-brown, with a matte sheen; the sapwood is white. The wood is resistant to rot and insect damage. It has no industrial value, but it is still used in furniture making, pencil making, and for lathe work. But, unfortunately, active extermination of juniper has led to almost complete disappearance of its large (10-12 m) specimens. In addition, juniper - a champion in the amount of phytoncides released: up to 10 kg from one bush per day!
