Common juniper is a shrub rather than a tree. It is low and creeping, typically less than 1 m high but spreading to 3 m or more. Although most species of juniper show both scale-like and needle-like leaves, common juniper has only short, needle-like leaves arranged in whorls of three around the branchlets. The needles are stiff and very prickly, whitish below and green above. The female cones look like berries, fleshy and light green when young and blue-black when mature (after two summers), all the while covered with a whitish waxy bloom. Male and female cones are produced on separate plants. Common juniper is just that&emdash;common throughout the temperate zone all around the northern hemisphere, the only conifer so widely distributed. It grows in dry, open woods, peat bogs, and open rock outcrops from low elevations to subalpine ridges and alpine tundra. Common juniper "berries" are extensively used in European cooking as a flavoring for soups and stews, and they are the flavoring agent in gin.