Juniperus horizontalisMoench

American SavinCreeping JuniperShrubby Red CedarWaukegan Junipercreeping juniper

WFO wfo-0000355700 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Juniperus horizontalis, photographed by John Gaskin
fig. a John Gaskin, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-29 / obs. 201714170

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
472531
Filed as
Juniperus horizontalis Moench
Det. by
M. H. Nee
Collected
M. H. Nee 2000-09-13
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Juniperus horizontalis is native: Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Labrador, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon AlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoIllinoisIowaLabradorManitobaMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNova ScotiaNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaVermontWisconsinWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Juniperus horizontalis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Illinois ILL
Iowa IOW
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nova Scotia NSC
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,052 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -20.1 °C -11.8 °C -6.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.0 °C 23.5 °C 26.9 °C
Annual rainfall 334 mm 565 mm 1,565 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 31 mm 66 mm 314 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,052 research-grade observations of Juniperus horizontalis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 24 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Juniperus horizontalis f. alpina (Lodd. ex Loudon) Rehder
  • Juniperus horizontalis f. glomerata Rehder
  • Juniperus horizontalis f. lobata O.W.Knight
  • Juniperus horizontalis subsp. hamptonensis Silba
  • Juniperus horizontalis subsp. neopangaea Silba
  • Juniperus horizontalis var. alpina (Lodd. ex Loudon) Rehder
  • Juniperus horizontalis var. douglasii hort.
  • Juniperus horizontalis var. douglasii Rehder
  • Juniperus horizontalis var. glomerata Rehder
  • Juniperus horizontalis var. variegata Beissn.
  • Juniperus hudsonica Forbes
  • Juniperus prostrata Pers.
  • Juniperus racemosa Risso
  • Juniperus repens Nutt.
  • Juniperus sabina f. prostrata (Pers.) Voss
  • Juniperus sabina var. alpina Lodd. ex Loudon
  • Juniperus sabina var. humilis Hook.
  • Juniperus sabina var. procumbens Pursh
  • Juniperus sabina var. prostrata (Pers.) Loudon
  • Juniperus virginiana var. prostrata (Pers.) Torr.
  • Sabina horizontalis (Moench) Rydb.
  • Sabina horizontalis f. douglasii (Rehder) Moldenke
  • Sabina prostrata (Pers.) Antoine
  • Sabina racemosa (Risso) Antoine

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.