Genévrier cade

The genévrier cade ( Juniperus oxycedrus ), or cade, or oxycèdre, is small a Arbre or a frequent Arbrisseau in coastal region the Mediterranean (of the Morocco to the Iran), where it is one of the plants characteristic of the Garrigue S and the maquis. The cones, edible fresh, are brown with orange. Two subspecies are usually distinguished:

subsp. oxycedrus , with set up port, very narrow sheets, small fruits;
subsp. macrocarpa , more buissonnant and with large fruits.

To note however that, in a recent monograph devoted to the kind Juniperus ( Junipers off the World , 2004), R. - P. Adams proposes to make macrocarpa a species with whole share ( J. macrocarpa ) and to divide the subspecies oxycedrus into two: J. oxycedrus (western of the Mediterranean basin) and J. deltoides (is basin).

Description

Ecology and habitat

The genévrier cade is most current of the Mediterranean genévriers, one meets it in the whole of the basin. He appreciates the places arid, rocky, on limestone or acid grounds, where he is frequently associated with the Holm oak and the Kermes oak.

Flowering: May
Pollination: anémogame
Dissemination: endozoochore

General and vegetative morphology

Tree which can reach 14 meters, but whose dimensions are in general much more modest (1 to 2 meters, sometimes less). Gray or reddish, rather rough bark. persistent Foliage being presented in the form of needles. These needles, with fine and prickly point, are laid out in verticils of 3 out of 6 rows. Their higher face carries two white bands, which makes it possible to make the distinction with the common Genévrier (needles with only one white band).

Floral morphology

The genévrier cade is a dioïque shrub (male flowers and females not pushing on the same plant). The male and female flowers form small cones.

Fruit and seeds

The cones females take little by little the appearance of bays, the scales being welded the ones with the others. These cones become ripe at the end of approximately two years. That forms bays brown-red.

Use

wood

Almost imputrescible, wood can be used in the statuary, one also made lintels of doors of them.

oil

One extracts oil from it from cade, used formerly for his virtues healing, always very appreciated like disinfectant and disinfecting. It is frequently associated with various products such as the shampoos. It constitutes an auxiliary local treatment of the psoriasis and seborrheic dermites. It is also used to look after the shoes of the horses (enters the composition of the ointment of marshal). Frederic Mistral referred there in the Treasure of Félibrige by speaking d'" a rough oil of which the shepherds are useful themselves against the Gale ". It is very effective in the distance of the rodents, like like repulsive of insects. However it does not feel very good and it is necessary to avoid employing it " pure" on the skin. The factors of flute-with-nozzle make use of it in order to manufacture the stopper of the nozzle of the flute.

furnaces with cade

The furnaces with cade which one still finds in the Garrigue in Provence (in particular with Cuges-the-Pines) point out the time when this oil was produced directly in the fields: where the genévrier cade pushed, one built large cylindrical furnaces hones some, wood was slowly consumed there and one recovered oil in the low part of the furnace. Their use ceased during the second world war; modern distillings supplanted these artisanal methods.

References

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