TREE: Small to medium sized tree looking rather shrubby due to branching at or near ground level in many specimens. Gray bark peels off in long, shredding strips.

CONES: Male cones are small and numerous (top right photo) and are shed. Female cones develop a fleshy aril which resembles a berry. The flesh is yellow-orange and sweet enough to attract many birds. The sugar content and thus attractiveness to birds varies considerably from place to place.

LEAVES: Small scale-like green leaves are minutely toothed on margins and usually have conspicuous exudate from glands.

RANGE: In Arizona this plant is found in chaparral, grassland and juniper habitats often immediately adjacent to riparian canyons, mostly in the southern half of Arizona and hence into Mexico and western Texas. Some botanists are recognizing the Arizona populations as a separate variety or species.

UNARMED

Sometimes galls that look very much like ripe berries can be found. They are caused by the feeding of a minute larva (maggot) of a gall midge. Follow the thumb-link for more information.