Trees to 10 m; crown flattened or conic (when young and protected or crowded). Bark cinnamon reddish. Branches spreading to pendulous. Scalelike leaves bluntly obtuse to acute at apex. Pollen cones 4--5 mm. Seed cones 3--4 mm. Seeds 1.5--3 mm.
Coastal foredunes and coastal river sandbanks; 0--15 m; Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C.
This southern variety of Juniperus virginiana appears to be restricted to coastal foredunes but differs little in morphology or leaf terpenoids from upland J . virginiana and appears to intergrade with that variety in Georgia (R. P. Adams 1986). These taxa are distinct from the Caribbean junipers J . lucayana Britton of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Cuba, and J . bermudiana Linnaeus of Bermuda (R. P. Adams et al. 1987). Reports of J . virginiana var. silicicola from west of Florida are questionable.