If only trees could talk . . . Here is a magisterial Alligator Juniper, so named because of the distinctive bark that resembles the reptilian skin of its namesake. Common from central Mexico to the American Southwest, Alligator Junipers are used to facing harsh conditions: they grow at relatively high altitudes (this one was around 6,000 feet elevation), need very little water, can withstand extreme heat but also cold, and grow in sandy, nutrient-poor soils.
The _Juniperus deppeana_ matures slowly, but can survive for hundreds of years: the broad trunk of this particular tree suggests a long lifespan, one which perhaps witnessed a time before the U.S. takeover of the Southwest, the Industrial Revolution, and the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918. The challenging months of our own pandemic mean exactly nothing to this tree.
