Twisted, gnarled, knotted, knobby wood

Exit78 Photo of the Day #17

Utah junipers are one of the dominant trees in the deserts of the American southwest. Slow growing, they typically live 350 to 700 years.  Some even live over 1000 years.¹

Twisted, gnarled, knotted, knobby, dead Utah juniper, Canyonlands National Park, September 23, 2007 (Pentax K10D)

Thriving in “permanent survival mode” in deserts that receive less than 10 inches of precipitation in a year, the juniper’s root system may be as much as 2/3 of the tree’s total mass, with a tap root that can go over 25 feet straight down and lateral roots out as much as 100 feet in order to find moisture.¹

Juniperus osteosperma²

Juniperus osteosperma (Utah juniper; syn. J. utahensis) is a shrub or small tree reaching 9 – 18 ft. (rarely to 27 ft) tall. It is native to the southwestern United States, in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, western New Mexico, western Colorado, Wyoming, southern Montana, southern Idaho and eastern California. It grows at moderate altitudes of 4,300–8,500 ft, on dry soils, often together with Pinus monophylla.

1. Life in the Canyonlands: the Utah Juniper – The River’s Path
2. Juniperus osteosperma – Wikipedia