Juniper

Luis Fernández García Own work. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons

"Juniperus communis cones" by MPF - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons

I noticed this on the way back from Brighton coming down the A27 from the Ditchling junction and it reminded me that I've been meaning to post it on the blog. Back near the start of this daily species malarkey I did the two other native conifers found the UK, Scot's Pine and Yew. This is the third and least prevalent: Common Juniper, Juniperus communis. However, in global terms it is the apparently the most widespread woody plant!
Its common name in French genievre gives us our name for gin, the spirit which is flavoured with juniper 'berries' (amongst other aromatics). 
What's odd about juniper is that it grows in two quite different habitats in the UK. In the north it grows in wet, acidic conditions on hills and moors; in the south it is found on dry, calcareous soils such as the chalk that forms the Downs.

Scot's pine

 

 It was somewhat remiss of me to return from Scotland without a picture of the Scot's pine, but here's some growing on heath in Sussex. Chailey Common to be precise, a lovely stretch of greensand heath overlying the wealden clays. 

Pinus sylvestris is another of our three native conifers. (I've done one already so there's the customary big money prize for guessing the third. It grows locally on the steep south-facing slopes of the A27 road embankment just outside Brighton.)

It's very late so that's all today. Will flesh this out a bit more tomorrow.

Still very late so perhaps tomorrow...

Lebanese Cedar

Even later tonight. So here's a pic of our neighbour's Lebanese cedar, Cedrus libani. It is a magnificent tree and from our house you could believe it was in our garden.
I've just read that very mature specimens can sometimes drop branches weighing one or two tonnes, without warning and sometimes in calm weather. Alarming as their children often play beneath its boughs, but I don't think this would count as a mature tree.
Would it?

Giant Redwood

I just realised that I didn't post anything yesterday. Too busy working and discussing anarchism.
So here's a whopper to catch up: Sequoiadendron giganteum aka the giant redwood and Wellingtonia. It is native to North West America and one of three 'redwoods' (along with Coast Redwood and the Dawn Redwood). It can grow to enormous dimensions, as seen in the General Sherman which is thought to be the largest single-stem tree on earth. It is in the order Pinales which contains all the conifers. It is in the Cupressaceae or cypress family.