Juniperus ashei is a drought-tolerant evergreen tree, native to northeastern Mexico and the south-central United States north to southern Missouri; the largest areas are in central Texas, where extensive stands occur. It grows up to tall, rarely, and provides erosion control and year-round shade for wildlife and livestock. The feathery foliage grows in dense sprays, bright green in color. The leaves are scale-like, long, and produced on rounded shoots. It is a dioecious species, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are round, long, and soft, pulpy and berry-like, green at first, maturing purple about 8 months after pollination. They contain one or two seeds, which are dispersed when birds eat the cones and pass the seeds in their droppings. The male cones are 3–5 mm long, yellow, turning brown after pollen release in December to February.
Allergy
The pollen causes a severe allergic reaction for some people in the winter, and people who are allergic to this juniper are also often allergic to the related Juniperus virginiana. Consequently, what begins as an allergy in the winter may extend into spring, since the pollination of J. virginiana follows that of J. ashei. Ashe juniper is sometimes known in the area as "mountain cedar", and locals usually refer to the allergy as cedar fever.
Uses
The wood is naturally rot-resistant and provides raw material for fence posts. Posts cut from old-growth Ashe junipers have been known to last in the ground for more than 50 years. Over 100 years ago, most old-growth Ashe junipers were cut and used not only for fence posts, but also for telegraph poles and railroad ties. The berry-like cones are eaten by various wildlife.
Texas
When Europeans first came to the Hill Country, they sought out the cypress, post oaks, and native cedar, since they provided the bestbuilding materials. The first Spanish who came in the mid-1700s built Hill Country missions using the Ashe juniper for roof beams. As a result of poor land management, the soil turned to caliche as soil eroded following decades of clearcutting and overgrazing. One of the only plants that could handle the rocky soil was the Ashe juniper. Grasses could not establish on thin rocky soils on the more rolling to flat areas, so the junipers took over there, as well. These days, Ashe Junipers are now considered a weed by many landowners. Some believe that it captures large amounts of water, denying it to other plants, thus causing them to die out and allowing the juniper to take over, although new evidence based on better research techniques conflicts with these claims. Ranchers also consider it to be a pest plant because overgrazing by cattle selectively removes competition when they avoid the bitter-tasting juniper seedlings. This allows for a high rate of juniper establishment and reduces ranch yields. Ashe juniper does not resprout when cut, but the related redberry juniper does resprout.
Overgrazed lands
The junipers that establish on overgrazed lands are young and vigorous, dense and multitrunked, and shallow-rooted. This directly contrasts the Ashe junipers, which the first settlers found to be large, mostly single-trunk trees with some producing logs that were 2–3 ft in diameter and 40 ft long. Where junipers do grow bushy on thinned, eroded soils, remaining grasses find competing for water difficult, especially if they are still being grazed and the soils are impoverished. The presence of these dense, shallow-rooted shrubs also means less water reaches the soil than areas with sparse, short grasses, subsurface flows, and deep drainage. However, their dense canopies and thick litter do reduce overland flows compared to grazed grasses. Also, much more water is evaporated from the sparse grass areas than originally calculated. Old-growth Ashe junipers are different in that they have true trunks, use less water, are slow growing and less foliated, and have very deep roots. These deeper roots may facilitate the deep drainage of water down trunk stemflows. For every inch of rain, about 6 gallons of previously undocumented water are funneled down the trunks.
