On average, January is our coldest month in the Sky Islands—a month when human snowbirds may actually rethink the logic of traveling here in an effort to escape the frozen throes of a more northern winter.
Frigid temperatures and a general dearth of life mark this month. Bare trees, sparse bird life, no flowers, and other hallmarks of winter make even spoiled Sky Islands denizens long for a respite, perhaps a connection with life that helps to bridge our more abundant times.
Coming to the rescue are the good handful of coniferous trees gracing the U.S. portion of the Madrean Archipelago. While not all coniferous, or cone-bearing, trees are evergreen— witness bald cypresses and larches—our local species do indeed sport year-round, verdant foliage. Hence their great utility in not only enlivening drab January, but also in furnishing crucial habitat for a plethora of wildlife species.
All our native Sky Island conifers fall into two distinct plant families. The cypress family houses both our many juniper and our lone cypress species. All possess scaly foliage that up close looks a bit like the overlapping scales of a fish. Arizona cypress is our state’s sole representative of its genus. There are about 16 new world and ten old world species of cypress currently gracing our planet. The cones on our species look a bit like a child’s wooden puzzle with few moving parts. A sort of simplified Rubik’s cube.
Even those folks who have never laid eyes upon a wild AZ cypress have very likely spotted the tree in someone’s backyard. Perhaps no native tree is so heavily used for landscaping at or above 4,000 feet within the Sky Islands. In fact, the species has been widely planted around the globe as a relatively low water user in drier locales, such as Provence, France. It acts as an effective windbreak and provides luxurious shade. In our local wilds, the species thrives in select mountain canyons and occasionally on mountain slopes. In each case it provides quality roost and/or nest sites for many different raptor species, particularly in the depths of winter. Species as diverse as Mexican spotted owl, great horned owl and northern goshawk all take advantage of the protective evergreen embrace of this handsome tree.
Joining the cypress are a handful of local juniper species, particularly alligator and redberry junipers. These two species—out of about 60 on Earth—constitute a formidable ecological tandem. Starting at elevations as low as the 3,000s, redberry juniper can either be a botanical spice to various habitats or be so abundant as to form either juniper woodland or, when they are not quite as dense, juniper savannah.
Woodhouse’s scrub jays, as well as other birds and various rodents consume juniper ‘fruit’—actually unopened cones and not fruit at all. They rely heavily upon the habitat and/or food provided by redberry juniper. I remember once spying quite an entourage of birds in one lone tree of this species in the depths of winter. A northern mockingbird, several sage thrashers, a crissal thrasher and a curve-billed thrasher were all seeking the singularly aromatic cones of their host tree. Phainopeplas, Townsend’s solitaires, and various species of bluebirds are among the other partakers of this unique food.
Alligator juniper fruit is even more palatable to some wildlife, given its lesser dose of chemicals and higher sugar content. It draws in more mammalian diners. Collared peccaries, pack rats, rock squirrels, Arizona gray and other tree squirrels, hungry naturalists, and even American black bear all greedily devour the larger, purplish cones of this juniper. Both it and redberry juniper provide key evergreen refuge to roosting birds and mammals alike.
Redberry juniper is also the main host for the locally rare bromeliad, ball moss. The juniper creates an ideal microclimate for this arboreal member of the pineapple family. Certain specimens of the juniper are festooned with this lovely epiphyte which, despite the bedecked appearance of the trees, are not parasites but instead harmless commensals.
Though Arizona cypress receives most of the press when it comes to tree planting, I highly recommend trying either species of juniper in your own backyard. They are both rather drought hardy and bear all the numerous wildlife benefits noted above. Each species has greatly added to both the look and wildlife value of our restored habitat at Raven’s Nest Nature Sanctuary.
Next issue we’ll take a peek at our other conifer group—the diverse pine family.
Vincent Pinto and his wife, Claudia, run RAVENS-WAY WILD JOURNEYS LLC, their Nature Adventure & Conservation organization devoted to protecting and promoting the unique biodiversity of the Sky Islands region. RWWJ offers a wide variety of private, custom-made courses, birding & biodiversity tours. Visit: ravensnatureschool.org