Juniperus squamata D.Don
Flaky juniper; Nepalese juniper; Himalayan juniper; Scaly-leaf Nepal juniper
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Juniperus squamata D.Don: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don.





56 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Juniperus squamata, the flaky juniper, or Himalayan juniper is a species of coniferous shrub, or sometimes small tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to the Himalayas and China.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Juniperus squamata", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Juniperus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub”, “temperate”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,134 mm of 1,487 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 10.5 °C against a yearly mean of 3.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.
Rain
1,487 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,134 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 308 mm, driest month December at 21 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 548 mm to 4,084 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,533 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,487 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -15.0 °C, the absolute minimum -19.4 °C, 8,777 frost nights in 44 years, 199.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -14.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -24.5 °C to 0.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 14.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -15.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -776 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Group. Listed under the genus Juniperus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “shrub”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from -1 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul; mean nightly low from -14 °C in Jan to 7 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 1,487 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 110 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -19.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | -1 / -10–9 | 1 / -9–10 | 4 / -6–14 | 8 / -1–17 | 12 / 4–19 | 14 / 9–20 | 15 / 11–21 | 14 / 11–20 | 13 / 8–18 | 10 / 3–17 | 4 / -5–13 | 0 / -9–10 |
| Night °C | -14 / -25–1 | -13 / -22–2 | -9 / -18–5 | -5 / -13–7 | 0 / -7–10 | 5 / -1–12 | 7 / 2–12 | 7 / 1–13 | 4 / -2–12 | -3 / -10–9 | -8 / -20–6 | -12 / -24–2 |
| Rain mm | 34 / 2–134 | 46 / 3–197 | 67 / 6–219 | 82 / 14–279 | 124 / 32–508 | 205 / 77–627 | 308 / 146–647 | 299 / 140–719 | 198 / 75–531 | 81 / 12–265 | 22 / 3–127 | 21 / 2–112 |
| DLI | 25 / 18–31 | 31 / 20–37 | 38 / 26–45 | 43 / 29–50 | 45 / 29–51 | 39 / 29–49 | 35 / 30–45 | 32 / 29–41 | 33 / 27–39 | 31 / 24–36 | 25 / 20–32 | 22 / 17–29 |
| RH % | 56 / 48–62 | 58 / 47–65 | 58 / 47–64 | 60 / 49–65 | 62 / 50–65 | 64 / 52–70 | 63 / 59–73 | 66 / 60–72 | 65 / 58–71 | 60 / 52–66 | 57 / 50–64 | 56 / 48–62 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Zheng-An Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
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Corydalis ecristata Papaveraceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossOther Juniperus 54 in the reference
Juniperus × ambigens Cupressaceae Photo: CC BY, Brandon Corder
Juniperus arizonica Arizona Juniper Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ
Juniperus ashei Ashe juniper Photo: CC BY, Rachel
Juniperus barbadensis West Indies Juniper Photo: CC BY, J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría
Juniperus bermudiana Bermuda cedar Photo: CC BY, Kevin Faccenda
Juniperus brevifolia Azores Juniper Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat Hinczewski
Juniperus californica California juniper Photo: CC BY, Henrik Kibak
Juniperus canariensis Cupressaceae Photo: CC BY, Hendrik Luup
Juniperus cedrus Canary Islands juniper Photo: CC BY, Diego Rodríguez Hernández
Juniperus chinensis Chinese juniper Photo: CC BY, chiuluan
Juniperus coahuilensis Redberry juniper Photo: CC BY, Rodolfo Maximiliano Gutiérrez-Sánchez all 55 ›Names & registers
Also known as Juniperus baimashanensis; Juniperus butanensis; Juniperus densa; Juniperus fargesii; Juniperus fargessi and 22 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Kew accepts as species of their own Juniperus morrisonicola: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 2684690 is Juniperus squamata Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don; the page links Kew's Juniperus squamata D.Don, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 47 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (39 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 8 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 29.50_90.000, lapse-corrected -776 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.






