Why is the common juniper missing from our Christmas celebrations? - asks Dr Terry Mabbett

CHRISTMAS is a relatively recent event, but descended from millennia-old pagan festivals like Yule and Saturnalia. Yuletide was a winter solstice festival variously observed by Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Norse tribes. Saturnalia was a mid-December event which took place in Ancient Rome to celebrate the agricultural god Saturn. 

Aspects of these ancient festivals were essentially absorbed, acquired or hijacked by Christianity, depending on how benevolent your view. They included bringing ever-greenery like conifers into the home as warm shelter for friendly sylva-spirits. The semi-parasitic mistletoe (evergreen nevertheless) was a good-luck charm for a wide range of cultures including in Norse, Druid and Ancient Greek mythology. 

Holly was a plant sacred to Saturn and the ancient Romans used it as decoration during their Saturnalia festivities. Ivy was sacred to Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, and so festival-goers wore head-bands made of ivy vines and drank wine hewn from the wood. The reasoning behind this was ivy’s sobering effect on revellers, allowing them to consume vast amounts of wine. And, if you have ever taken a nostril-full of the strong and sobering scent emitted by ivy flowers in autumn, you will know there is some truth in the tradition.

Holly, ivy and mistletoe all made it through to Christmas. Despite being more logically aligned to Eastertide through its leaf spines (crown of thorns) and bright red berries (drops of Christ’s blood), holly became a symbol of Christmas. Prior to Victorian times, ‘Christmas tree’ referred to holly. Mistletoe was adopted with some reticence and only made it as far as the lychgate (entrance to the churchyard). But what about Britain’s three native conifers; Scots pine, English yew and common juniper?

The majority of common juniper is concentrated in the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District, but this rarer colony of juniper bushes is at Aston Upthorpe Downs in Oxfordshire (picture courtesy of Plantlife).

The absence of common yew from joyous mid-winter festivals (pagan or otherwise) is not unexpected given the poisonous nature of the berries and leaves and the yew tree’s association with death. Scots pine would almost certainly have been used to celebrate Yuletide by Celtic tribes across the British Isles. Indeed, there was essentially nothing else, apart from common juniper. Today Scots pine is a niche Christmas tree species in northern England and Scotland, but common juniper appears to be in absentia.

COMMON JUNIPER M.I.A. FROM OUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS 

Exactly why common juniper (Juniperus communis) appears to have missed British Christmas and, presumably, Yuletide too is a mystery. Though now increasingly rare, two millennia ago this native, diminutive conifer would have been ubiquitous. You would think the attractive, dark-green foliage emitting a pleasing aroma (variously described as cedar, lemon and apples, when crushed) and the beautiful blue berries long used to flavour food and beverages, would make the juniper a perfect tree for mid-winter celebrations. 

READ MORE: 6 of the best Christmas trees with a difference

Perhaps juniper was too closely associated with the yew tree. Indeed, common juniper is also called ‘mountain yew’, while the word juniper is thought to originate from the Gaelic word ‘Iubhair’ meaning yew. I expect the juniper tree has featured at some time or other within Highland Christmas celebrations, though most Sassenachs haven’t a clue about common juniper except when sipping pink gin (regular gin with a splash of Angostura bitters). Be that as it may, Christmas in the British Isles appears, for the most part, to have overlooked common juniper, almost certainly to our detriment. 
But is this true elsewhere in the world? The Juniperus genus comprises some 60 species spread right across the Northern Hemisphere from North America to East Asia and as far south as the mountains of Central America. Outside of Britain, in both Europe and North America, juniper is considered one of the most important plants in Christmas ethnobotany. 

The biblical event which put juniper on the festive maps of continental Europe and North America is the tree’s part in securing the escape of the holy family (Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus) from Bethlehem and the clutches of the notorious King Herod. The legend says that as they ran through low fields with nowhere to hide, a juniper bush opened up its branches to enclose and protect them. Herod’s henchmen could not see through the dense foliage and moved on. 

I expect juniper foliage has featured in Scottish Highland Christmas celebrations, although most Sassenachs haven’t a clue a about the plant, except when sipping gin because of the ripe berries used to flavour the tincture (picture courtesy of the Forestry Commission).

The story goes that Mary blessed the juniper bush in gratitude while Joseph soothed their terrified donkey by wiping its sweat away with one of its branches. The tree would almost certainly have been Phoenicean juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) which is native to Israel. This is why the juniper has become a Christian symbol for protection, the event being remembered in the Christian calendar as the Feast of the Holy Innocents, celebrated on 28 December.

Passed down through countless generations, this biblical story with a happy ending gave birth to a number of Christmas customs including European and North American farmers hanging juniper boughs or wreaths on the stable or barn doors. North American farmers tie the boughs with dark red cords to signify the blood of Christ.

Juniper was an essential feature of holy worship in the early monasteries. Branches of juniper foliage were used in the asperges of the congregation because of the abundance of ‘holy water’ held in the leaves. The branches were also burned in churches as incense, purifying homes with their fragrant white smoke. 

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) was the traditional Christmas tree of many southern areas of the United States, chosen for its conical shape and availability. Today the tree is grown commercially and is one of the most popular Christmas trees in North America.

COULD COMMON JUNIPER GO MISSING ALTOGETHER?

So much for J. communis going MIA for Christmas, but this species, which is one of just three conifers native to Britain, could go missing altogether. The risk of this is due to an alien pathogen called Phytophthora austrocedri, spreading relentlessly through Britain’s already depleted population of common juniper. 

Juniperus communis was already on the skids for a variety of reasons when this fungus-like pathogen turned up early in 2012 on one of the UK’s most important remaining sites of juniper woodland at the Moor-House Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve (NNR) in the Northern Pennines.

Concern around the decline of common juniper led guardians of the Upper Teesdale site to come up with a programme of plant multiplication and restocking. Instead of carrying out the programme on Upper Teesdale, juniper berries were collected from the site and passed on to a commercial nursery tasked with germinating the seed and growing on the seedling trees for replanting. 

Common juniper bears deep-green foliage and attractive blue berries but it appears to have ‘gone missing in action’ for Christmas. Perhaps the sharp spines were a deterrent (picture courtesy of the Forestry Commission).

One of the volunteers involved in replanting, clearly an expert on Juniperus, recognised some of the seedling trees sent back for replanting as not belonging to the native J. communis species. Assumptions are that P. austrocedri was already present in the UK nursery plant trade having entered from Europe under the EU’s Alexandre Dumas doctrine (all for one and one for all). Free trade in goods and services between member states and with it, free trade in plant pests and diseases. Like Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora lateralis, which appear to have entered the UK along this same avenue, P. austrocedri was probably spreading within the European plant nursery trade for some time without the authorities there knowing it.

Some 10 years later, the most recent distribution map for Phytophthora austrocedri (January 2020) published by the Forestry Commission shows scores of sites are now infected, predictably concentrated in the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District, where most remaining juniper woodland is located.