Common juniper
Juniperus communis
Also called Ground juniper
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
The prickly-needled juniper of the foothills and open forest, named in the Blackfeet, Chippewa-Cree, Nakoda and Northern Cheyenne blends. Different from the flat creeping juniper of the coulee rims.
Speak with someone who knows this plant before you harvest it.
Take care
- Not taken internally in pregnancy, and not by anyone with kidney trouble.
- The Montana guide restricts internal use to medical supervision.
What it is confused with
Easily confusedCreeping juniper Juniperus horizontalis
Creeping juniper is a flat mat with tiny overlapping scale leaves, not sharp three-part needles. Both are used.
How to know it
- Needles
- Sharp, prickly, in whorls of three, with a single white band down the upper surface. Not scale-like at all.
- Smell
- Crush a few and they smell of apples and resin.
- Berries
- Round, hard, green at first and ripening blue-black over two years.
- Habit
- A low spreading prickly shrub, usually below the knee.
The country it grows in
- Foothills and shrubland
- Mountain forest
- Sandy and gravelly ground
- Coulee slopes
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Berries August to OctoberThe Montana guide says to lay a sheet under the shrub and shake a branch gently; the ripe ones drop.
- Leaves January to DecemberWear gloves. The needles are genuinely sharp.
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Smudge and ceremony
- Breathing and colds
- Food and drink
Named in the Blackfeet, Chippewa-Cree, Assiniboine, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Little Shell blends recorded in the Montana guide.
Wood and roots burned to preserve meat; dried berries used as a rub.
How it is prepared
- Dried and stored
Berries dried in the sun and kept whole.
- Smudge
Dried sprigs smoulder with a sharp resinous smoke.
- Tea
Dried berries in boiling water, steeped about fifteen minutes.
The Montana guide says internally only under medical supervision. Take that seriously.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.