Pinus aristata
Pinus serotina
bristlecone pine, Colorado bristlecone pine, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine
marsh pine, pocosin pine, pond pine
gray to red-brown, shallowly fissured, with long, flat, irregular ridges.
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into rectangular, flat, scaly plates.
contorted;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout, orange- to yellow-orange, frequently glaucous, aging darker.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
ovoid to narrowly ovoid, red-brown, 1–1.5(–2)cm, resinous.
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.
3 per fascicle (to 5 in adventitious or disturbed growth), spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, (12–)15–20(–21)cm × 1.3–1.5(–2)mm, slightly twisted, tufted at twig tips, straight, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, ca. 10mm, bluish to red.
cylindric, to 30mm, yellow-brown.
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, in some populations beginning to shed seeds then but more often variably serotinous, long-persistent, often whorled, symmetric, ovoid to lanceoloid before opening, broadly ovoid to nearly globose when open, 5–8cm, pale red-brown to creamy brown, sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly thickened, low, rhombic, low cross-keeled;
umbo central, low-conic, with short, weak prickle, sometimes unarmed.
=24.
=24.
Pinus aristata
Pinus serotina
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.)
Pinus serotina is fire successional and sprouts adventitiously after crown fires. It is part of a distinct forest type including Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) Richard, Nyssa biflora Walter, Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus, Persea sp., and Ilex sp. Of good form when protected from fire, P. serotina then much resembles P. taeda, with which it hybridizes naturally. It is of increasing importance as pulpwood.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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