Juniper plants in Scotland have faced a number of threats recently with booming rabbit and vole populations taking their toll on plants that are already suffering from “old age”. Many juniper trees are more than 100 years old and now a new fungal disease is ripping through the Scottish junipers.
The public have been asked to help to determine the health of junipers bushes in their areas. Juniper has a blueish green appearance with dark blue to black berries. If bushes have orange or brown colours there may infected with the fungus Phytophthora austrocedrae.
Most gin distillers import their juniper berries from Italy so the Scottish problem should not effect the British gin industry.