Juniper Cossack is a coniferous shrub of the genus Juniper .
Dioecious creeping shrub 1-1.5 m high. Grows rapidly in width and forms dense thickets. Less common are small trees up to 4 m tall with curved trunks. The bark is reddish brown, flaking. Shoots contain essential oil , are poisonous. The needles are of two types: in young plants and on shaded branches, needle-shaped, erect, pointed, 4-6 mm long, bluish-green above, soft, with a distinctly prominent median vein; in adult plants, the needles are scaly, tiled. A characteristic feature of the species is a pungent odor that needles and shoots emit when rubbed. The needles are stored for three years. The plant is dioecious. The cones are drooping, small (5-7 mm), brown-black with a bluish bloom, rounded-oval, mostly two-seeded. The seeds ripen in the fall and spring of the next year. Drought-resistant, photophilous, undemanding to soil, resistant to smoke and gases, has soil-protective properties.
