Juniperus procera

Indigenous

Am: Tid Eng: African pencil cedar Or: Gatira, Hindessa

Ecology Propagation A valuable timber indigenous to Seedlings, wildings — often numerous. and eastern highland forests, 1,500–3,300 m. It does best in high-rainfall areas but can survive quite dry Mature brown to purplish black fruit conditions once established. It is the largest collected from the crown. Spread fruit in a in the world. It performs well in thin layer on a floor for drying. Then crush Moist and Wet Weyna Dega and Dega the fruit with a mortar and pestle. Sieve and agroclimatic zones. winnow to separate from the rest of the cone. Germination rate 20–70% within Uses 25—80 days. 40,000–50,000 seed per kg. Firewood, timber (floors, roof shingles, Treatment: Not necessary. pencils, joinery), poles, posts, medicine Storage (bark, , twigs, buds), shade, : Seed can be stored in airtight ornamental, windbreak. containers for some time if dried properly. Description An evergreen tree about 40 m with a Management straight trunk, although often fluted. A Fairly fast growing in the open but pyramidal shape when young. The foliage is otherwise slow. Prune and thin for finer and more open than cypress. BARK: timber and poles. The tree takes at least 30 Thin grey‑brown, grooved and peeling years to grow to maturity. with age. LEAVES: Prickly, young leaves Remarks to 1 cm, soon replaced by scale‑like mature Does not grow well alongside crops. It leaves, blue‑green, triangular and closely regenerates well and deserves high priority overlapping on the branchlets. FRUIT: in reafforestation. The wood is termite Male cones small and yellow with pollen, resistant. The tree is now rare due to female purple‑blue fleshy “berries” about 8 over‑exploitation. Although belonging to mm, the pulp containing 1-4 hard seeds. the cypress family, this subgroup has no dry cones like Cupressus.

316 | Useful Trees and Shrubs of Ethiopia Photo: Patrick Maundu

The Species | 317