Juniperus flaccida (known as drooping juniper, weeping juniper, Mexican juniper, or tláscal) is a large shrub or small tree reaching (rarely to 15 m) tall. It is native to central and northern Mexico (from Oaxaca northward) and the extreme southwest of Texas, United States (Brewster County). It grows at moderate altitudes of , on dry soils.
The bark is brown, with stringy vertical fissuring. The shoots are strongly pendulous, 1âÂÂ1.2 mm diameter, and often borne in flattened sprays (the only juniper commonly showing this character). The leaves are arranged in opposite decussate pairs; the adult leaves are scale-like, 2âÂÂ4 mm long (to 7 mm on lead shoots) and 1âÂÂ1.5 mm broad. The juvenile leaves (on young seedlings only) are needle-like, 5âÂÂ10 mm long. The cones are berry-like, 8âÂÂ20 mm in diameter, green maturing brown, and contain 6-12 seeds (the most seeds per cone of any juniper); they are mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 3âÂÂ5 mm long, and shed their pollen in spring. It is largely dioecious, producing cones of only one sex on each tree.
There are three varieties, not accepted as distinct by all authorities: