Pinus attenuata
Pinus elliottii
knobcone pine
slash pine
purple-brown to dark brown, shallowly and narrowly fissured, with irregular, flat, loose-scaly plates, on upper sections of trunk nearly smooth.
orange- to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates.
ascending;
twigs slender, red-brown.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout (to ca. 1cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly.
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, dark red-brown, aging darker, ca. 1.5cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed, apex attenuate.
cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5–2cm;
scale margins fringed.
3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 4–5 years, (8–)9–15(–20)cm × (1–)1.3–1.8mm, straight or slightly curved, twisted, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly conic-subulate;
sheath (1–)1.5–2cm, base persistent.
2 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15–20(–23)cm × 1.2–1.5mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow- to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid-cylindric, 10–15mm, orange-brown.
cylindric, 30–40mm, purplish.
cones maturing in 2 years, serotinous, long-persistent, remaining closed for 20 years or more, or opening on burning, in whorls, hard and heavy, very asymmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid-cylindric when open, 8–15cm, yellow- or pale red-brown, stalks to 1cm;
apophyses toward outside base increasingly elongate, mammillate or raised-angled-conic, downcurved near base, scarcely raised on branchlet side, rhombic;
umbo central, low-pyramidal, sharp, upcurved.
cones maturing in 2 years, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7–)9–18(–20)cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3cm;
apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled;
umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle.
=24.
Pinus attenuata
Pinus elliottii
Pinus attenuata, mostly a chaparral species, bears cones at an early age. Its seed crops are heavy, and a hot fire permits the seeds to be released. It forms hybrids with P. muricata and P. radiata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 2 (native only in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Seedlings essentially without grass stage, buds thus scattered on the stem; leaves mostly in 3s, sometimes in 2s on same shoot; resin canals 3-5 per leaf; base of open cone ± truncate. | var. elliottii |
1. Seedlings tending toward a grass stage, buds thus crowded on contracted stems; leaves mostly in 2s, sometimes in 3s on same shoot; resin canals 3-9 per leaf; base of open cone rounded. | var. densa |
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
LA Plants
