Pinus aristata
Pinus sabiniana
bristlecone pine, Colorado bristlecone pine, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine
California foothill pine, digger pine, foothill pine, ghost, gray, gray pine, or foothill pine
gray to red-brown, shallowly fissured, with long, flat, irregular ridges.
dark brown to near black, irregularly and deeply furrowed, ridges irregularly rectangular or blocky, scaly, often breaking away, bases of furrows and underbark orangish.
contorted;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
often ascending;
cone-bearing branchlets stout, twigs comparatively slender, both pale purple-brown and glaucous, aging gray, rough.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
ovoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous;
scale margins white-fringed.
5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–17 years, (2–)3–4cm × 0.8–1mm, mostly connivent, deep blue-green, with drops and scales of resin, abaxial surface with strong, narrow median groove, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by stomates, margins entire or distantly serrulate, apex conic-acute to conic-subulate;
sheath 0.5–1.5cm, scales soon recurving, shed early.
mostly 3 per fascicle, drooping, persisting 3–4 years, 15–32cm × 1.5mm, slightly twisted, dull blue-green, all surfaces with pale, narrow stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex short-acuminate;
sheath to 2.4cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, ca. 10mm, bluish to red.
ellipsoid, 10–15mm, yellow.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric before opening, lance-ovoid to ovoid or cylindric when open, 6–11cm, purple to brown, nearly sessile;
apophyses much thickened;
umbo central, with triangular base, extended into slender, brittle prickle 4–10mm.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 7 years, pendent, massive, heavy, nearly symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, 15–25cm, dull brown, resinous, stalks to 5cm;
apophyses elongate, curved, continuous with umbos to form long, upcurved claws to 2cm.
=24.
= 24.
Pinus aristata
Pinus sabiniana
Pinus aristata has leaves usually narrower and sharper than in P. longaeva and P. balfouriana, and the leaves almost always have a narrow, median groove on the abaxial surface.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Seeds of Pinus sabiniana were an important food source for many Indian groups in California, sometimes collectively referred to as "Digger Indians." Because the name "Digger" has been used as a derogatory ethnic term, many people prefer to avoid using the vernacular name Digger pine.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
