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Common juniper

Juniperus communis · Cupressaceae · all Juniperus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 4 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Catalonia, Spain; Global; Ohio / Midwest; Wyoming; eastern US
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 2 scopes across 2 cited fire sources

Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
- OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01
  Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Firewise Landscaping · Official scoped edition
- WY; partial normalized coverage · 2005-04-01
  University of Wyoming Extension published these Firewise examples for its Wyoming rural-living audience and points readers to Firewise Wyoming. FireApproved publishes ten exact source owners while holding broad plant groups. State publication scope is not suitability across every basin.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range: Current cited native range in AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 2b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Common juniper (Juniperus communis) — Photo: (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: shrub
USDA hardiness: Minimum 2b; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~12 ft
Light: Full sun
Water need: low
Current cited native range: AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY
Grows in: AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE +33
Rated in: Catalonia, Spain; Global; Ohio / Midwest; Wyoming +1
Family: Cupressaceae
Evidence: 10 cited sources

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

40

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

40 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

Alaska (AK)
Alabama (AL)
Arizona (AZ)
California (CA)
Colorado (CO)
Connecticut (CT)
Georgia (GA)
Iowa (IA)
Idaho (ID)
Illinois (IL)
Indiana (IN)
Kentucky (KY)
Massachusetts (MA)
Maryland (MD)
Maine (ME)
Michigan (MI)
Minnesota (MN)
Montana (MT)
North Carolina (NC)
North Dakota (ND)
Nebraska (NE)
New Hampshire (NH)
New Jersey (NJ)
New Mexico (NM)
Nevada (NV)
New York (NY)
Ohio (OH)
Oregon (OR)
Pennsylvania (PA)
Rhode I. (RI)
South Carolina (SC)
South Dakota (SD)
Tennessee (TN)
Utah (UT)
Virginia (VA)
Vermont (VT)
Washington (WA)
Wisconsin (WI)
West Virginia (WV)
Wyoming (WY)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record juniperus-communis · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 4 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Juniperus communis · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record JUCO6 · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 2b · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: -43°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Juniperus communis · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 15168, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its avoid rating)
Firewise Landscaping: keep 30 ft from the home (Zone 3) [OSU B921 source-category siting] (with its avoid rating)
Guía de pirojardinería: not suitable inside or outside the 25-metre maximum-risk zone [girona-2020-iuf-25m-suitability] (with its avoid rating)
Les franges perimetrals de protecció contra els incendis …: page 4 species-selection panel [catalonia-perimeter-strip-maintain-remove] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (4)

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector — USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF + state Firewise programs (WV, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, NJ) · 2016-wayback · original source Primary evidence Keyed curation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“NOT Firewise (4)”

Shrubby native juniper. Large fruit covering seeds is a source of flavoring for gin.
Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) — Ohio State University Extension (Sydnor, Steward, Kloss / Ohio DNR Division of Forestry) · 2006 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“VH (evergreen trees); VH (evergreen shrubs); H (ground covers)”

Tolerant of various soils; shade intolerant; disease sensitive.
Guía de pirojardinería — guía práctica de jardinería adaptada a la prevención de incendios forestales — Diputació de Girona and Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunya · 2020 Spanish edition · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: elvira-hernando-1989 + cooperem-tree

“MUY DESACONSEJADA”

Juniperus communis is rated “MUY DESACONSEJADA” by the guide's qualitative IUF garden-suitability method. The method assumes species-specific care and integrates fire evidence with fuel structure, maintenance, origin, invasiveness, and expert fire-service experience.
Firewise Landscaping — University of Wyoming Extension, Barnyards & Backyards (Jody Walker, USDA NRCS) · Barnyards & Backyards, Spring 2005 · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: firewise-traits

“FIRE-PRONE PLANTS — Examples: Common juniper”

The article prints this taxon as an example beneath its fire-prone heading.

Listed without a rating (5)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

5 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 27.5” · score 27.5 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 814; Ignitability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february. Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 252” · score 252 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 845; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february. Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.
- “flaming duration (s): 27.9” · score 27.9 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 876; Sustainability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february. Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.
- “ignition frequency (%): 50” · score 50 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 907; Ignitability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february. Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.
- “heat released per mass (°C s/g): 1838” · score 1838 (FLAMITS — heat released per mass (°C s/g))
  
  FLAMITS record 938; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Blackhall2019-1; sampling february. Primary study Blackhall2019: Blackhall, M., & Raffaele, E. (2019). Flammability of Patagonian invaders and natives: When exotic plant species affect live fine fuel ignitability in wildland-urban interfaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189, 1-10.

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Northern elderberry
Sambucus pubens

Red-osier dogwood
Cornus sericea

Snowberry
Symphoricarpos albus

Kelsey dogwood
Cornus sericea ‘Kelseyi’ Red elderberry
Sambucus racemosa

Elderberry
Sambucus canadensis

Fire-resistant shrubs listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Juniperus communis (Common juniper). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/juniperus-communis/. Last verified 2026-08-23.