Flora of Skyrim, Volume II: The Wily Juniper

by Froa Giantborn

As I expressed in my previous volume, the snowberry was able to take over the northern reaches of Skyrim through it’s staunch resistance to magicka. Juniper, however, came to be nearly as common, without any special resistance. How can this be you, may be asking yourself? The answer has less to do with magical properties; the tree used three distinct advantages to conquer the Reach.

To clarify, I haven’t personally visited to confirm the following information, but I believe that the juniper bush is not native to Skyrim. Before you dismiss this as a madman’s theory, hear me out. There are records from a few hundred years ago, late in the 3rd era, of root bulbs in the Iliac Bay. This alone is obviously not enough to support my assumption. But from the sketches I have seen, it is very similar to the juniper bulb. The two also share their alchemical property: regenerate health. This, along with the alien nature of the juniper tree, can reasonably prove that juniper is not native.

Now, what does this mean for the plant’s dominance? Everything. Due to it’s invasive nature, the shrub has no natural competitors, and nothing else is as well adapted to the abnormal topography of the Reach as something from the land of High Rock. Where once only moss and mushroom grew, in the past century or two, juniper has taken over. The twisted trunk and the ability to grow at strange angles makes this plant infinitely more suited to the geography surrounding Markarth.

This ability to grow on sheer cliff faces may be correlated to the regenerative health that juniper has. As I explained in my previous volume, the alchemical properties of an ingredient are usually shared by the plant it comes from; therefore the juniper would be quite resistant to damage. It would be able to quickly grow back after significant change or stress, such as falling down a cliff face, or being showered with rocks from a cliff. This would explain why juniper often grows where it isn’t wanted, because it is quite hardy to attack. It is, however, quite weak to fire, and is often burned out of areas, if the exterminator knows much about the plant.

The third advantage that juniper boasts over other plants in the Reach is it’s deliberate spread by men and mer. Mead has long been flavored with a bit of juniper, but a new spirit, called “gin”, has recently caught on in certain areas. Both of these alcoholic applications mean that many people grow juniper intentionally to flavor their drink, or use for distillation.

It is not only used in potions, poisons, and potables, but also in cooking. The most common juniper recipe is for juniper berry crostata, which is quite similar to snowberry crostata, which I described in Volume I. It is different in that the juniper berries have a strong taste, as opposed to snowberries, but a rather bland texture. This means that it requires less butter, but one might find themselves rather unappetized by the more pliant mouth-feel.

I hope you now understand how this invasive species came to be so prosperous, and why it is only common in the Reach. I also hope you catch up on Volume I and look forward to Volume III: The Ominous Deathbell.