A colloquial reference to the juniper component of pinyon-juniper woodlands, which range from New Mexico, across the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin, and into the higher elevations of the Mohave Desert in southeastern California. In this forest type, and in reference to the juniper species found within it, junipers tend to be relatively low to the ground and bushy due to the harsher conditions found in the arid high deserts of the western U.S..