Well, let me tell ya, these juniper and cedar trees, they ain’t the same thing, not by a long shot. Folks get ‘em mixed up all the time, but if you look close, you can see the difference clear as day.
Leaves, ya know, the green stuff? That’s where you start. Junipers, they got these little pointy leaves, like needles, and they come in bunches of three. Kinda like a little bird’s foot, ya see? And they got this white stripe down the middle, makes ‘em look kinda fancy. Cedars, though, they got leaves too, but they’re more like scales, all flat and overlapping, like on a fish. Ain’t pointy at all.
And the cones, where the seeds come from? Totally different. Cedar trees, they got these small, woody cones, like little pine cones, ya know? But junipers, them girl trees, they got berries. Yep, berries! Little blue or blackish berries, look good enough to eat, but don’t you go doin’ that, ’cause I ain’t sure if they’re good for ya.
- Juniper: Pointy needles in threes, white stripe, berries.
- Cedar: Flat, scaly leaves, woody cones.
Now, some folks, they like cedar wood for makin’ things. Old-timey stuff, like cabinets and chests. Good, sturdy wood, lasts a long time. Juniper, that’s more for the modern folks, they say it’s trendy. I don’t know much about that trendy stuff, but I reckon it smells nice.
I remember back when, we used to have this old cedar chest, passed down from my grandma. Smelled real strong, kept the moths away from the good blankets. Juniper, we didn’t have much of that around our parts. Mostly just them cedars, growin’ tall and strong.
And the names, oh, the names folks give these trees! Some old Gaelic names, somethin’ about Aittin and Samh, and places with names like Attadale and Samhan. Fancy names for simple trees, if you ask me. One fella even called juniper a “mountain yew,” but I ain’t never seen a yew, so I can’t tell ya if that’s right or not.
But the main thing to remember, is that junipers and cedars ain’t the same. They look different, feel different, and even smell different. So next time you see one of them trees, take a good look, and see if you can tell ‘em apart. It ain’t hard, once you know what to look for. And don’t go eatin’ them juniper berries, ya hear? Just admire ’em from afar.
So, to sum it up, for all you young’uns: needles in threes and berries means it’s a juniper. Scaly leaves and woody cones, that’s your cedar. Got it? Good. Now you know more than most folks in town, I betcha.
And one more thing, this ain’t somethin’ I learned from a book, ya know. This is just good ol’ common sense, somethin’ you pick up from livin’ close to the land, payin’ attention to the world around ya. City folks, they might not know the difference, but we country folk, we know our trees.
Anyways, that’s enough talkin’ about trees for one day. I gotta go get supper started. Hope you learned somethin’ today, and remember what I told ya. Juniper and cedar, two different critters, just like cats and dogs. You wouldn’t mix them up, now, would ya?
Tags: [Juniper, Cedar, Tree Identification, Evergreen Trees, Conifers, Needles, Scales, Berries, Wood, Traditional, Trendy]