Local “Yamadori weeds”....pine and juniper?

[rich815]

Hello all,

Took a hike this afternoon around at a local closed country club golf course up in the East bay hills with my wife and 9-yr old daughter. We really needed to get some fresh air and exercise during this shelter-in-place situation here in the San Francisco Bay Area. In a weedy border area of the golf course between a long fairway and the public road I found a small pine and a few juniper seedlings. I’m fairly certain the pine is a pine as it was at the base of a huge 60’ pine (and I have a few pine seedlings already so I recognize that) but right next to that seedling were a few juniper seedlings, or what looks like junipers (or cedars?). All three look the same type. They were all right where people walk and a couple were damaged from likely being stepped on. They were in amongst many weeds right next to the road median so I didn’t feel bad about digging them up. Random weeds in the true sense.

Anyway, photos below. Can anyone confirm if these are junipers? Or cedars? There were some tall cedars and juniper bushes but way on the other side of the fairway of this hole, at least 100 yards or so away from where I found these. Hope to keep them growing and make them into bonsai eventually. My first yamadori....I guess!

The pine


And the three junipers


and some close up of what I think are juniper/cedar types:

 

[Malix]

Looks like Juvenile juniper foliage to me. But I’m not as familiar as some others on the forum with young junipers other than those typically used for bonsai.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

They do give off the juniper vibe. But I'm skeptical because of that one with the bigger trunk. It should've produced at least a tuft of adult foliage by that size and the absence of it is suspicious.
Then again, if people tread on it daily, then it might just keep producing juvenile foliage.

I would grow them out for a couple of seasons, see what they come up with. But you thinking they're cedars, could mean that there are eastern redcedars (j. virginia) around. People don't seem to like those because they easily revert to juvenile foliage and they're very susceptible to apple cedar rust.

 

[rich815]

Thanks for the comments folks. Yes, I too found it curious that the one with the thicker trunk had not shown adult foliage as many other junipers and cedars I have with much thinner trunks already are transitioning to adult foliage. Perhaps lack of nutrients? After 4-6 weeks And once I see signs of new growth and get a sense of the plant settling in I’ll add it to my fertilizer routine and perhaps that will make a difference. Better photo of the trunk below, it’s almost as thick as my thumb, the bamboo stake you see about as thick as a standard pencil..

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

A lack of nutrients would more likely produce scale foliage, scale type foliage loses less water and uses less resources.

I have seen this growth pattern in auracacia plants that are sold for the indoor houseplant market.
There are many cultivars from that family, but the resemblence is striking.

Virginia junipers can however be pretty misleading. They're hard to ID because there's quite some variance in them, the bark of this one doesn't strike me as juniper bark, but at the same time it could very well be a juniper with one of those variances.

 

[rich815]

A lack of nutrients would more likely produce scale foliage, scale type foliage loses less water and uses less resources.

I have seen this growth pattern in auracacia plants that are sold for the indoor houseplant market.
There are many cultivars from that family, but the resemblence is striking.

Virginia junipers can however be pretty misleading. They're hard to ID because there's quite some variance in them, the bark of this one doesn't strike me as juniper bark, but at the same time it could very well be a juniper with one of those variances.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply, interesting and informative comment. Well, we’ll see what becomes of these if they survive and thrive.

Again, they were all found under a large pine so the pine’s provenance I’m fairly certain of, but darned if there weren’t anything resembling a juniper anywhere near. One theory I have is there was some sort of juniper bush at this location in the past that was removed as all three of the “juniper-type” plants I pulled were within a couple feet of each other and the largest had a fairly thick tap root that went pretty deep or appeared to. I cut it about 4-5” down.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Hard to say. Perhaps some of the California members can chime in.

Genus Cupressus - the cypress family - there are a number of species native to California, and their adult foliage looks similar to juniper juvenile foliage. I would bet that is what you have. Common is Cupressus goveniana - called the Monterey cypress or the California cypress, depending on who you talk to. Common as a landscape plant in addition to being native to Monterey County, California.

But I could be wrong.

As to the pines, same issue, there are many possible candidates, both native and the various non-native species likely to be used as landscape plants on a golf course.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The cypresses, Cupressus, many have been used as bonsai, they are not the easiest to get a good tree out of, but some very nice specimens have been shown over the years. I don't grow them, none are fully winter hardy in my region. So best if others comment.