How the forest lost its trees: Just So storytelling about Juniperus excelsa in Arabia

It has been suggested that the major cause of the poor regeneration of Juniperus excelsa in Saudi Arabia is the infestation of an average of 64•5% of the female cones with a tortricid moth, Strepsicrates cryptosema. We repudiate this hypothesis, since, in a long-lived species bearing several thousand cones annually, sufficient seeds will remain viable for regeneration. Human disturbance, grazing pressure or climatic change could be responsible for lack of seedling survival. We present evidence for J. excelsa in Oman which indicates that climatic change could be an important factor in the poor regeneration of the tree in Arabia.