Pinus balfouriana |
Pinus |
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foxtail pine |
pine |
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Habit | Trees to 22m; trunk to 2.6m diam., erect or leaning; crown broadly conic to irregular. | Trees or shrubs aromatic, evergreen; crown usually conic when young, often rounded or flat-topped with age. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bark | gray to salmon or cinnamon, platy or irregularly deep-fissured or with irregular blocky plates. |
of older stems variously furrowed and plated, plates and/or ridges layered or scaly. |
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Branches | contorted, ascending to descending; twigs red-brown, aging gray to drab yellow-gray, glabrous or puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves. |
usually in pseudowhorls; shoots dimorphic with long shoots and short shoots; short shoots borne in close spirals from axils of scaly bracts and bearing fascicles of leaves (needles). |
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Buds | ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, 0.8–1cm, resinous. |
ovoid to cylindric, apex pointed (blunt), usually resinous. |
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Leaves | 5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–30 years, 1.5–4cm × 1–1.4mm, mostly connivent, deep blue- to deep yellow-green, abaxial surface without median groove but usually with 2 subepidermal but evident resin bands, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by stomates, margins mostly entire to blunt, apex broadly acute to acuminate; sheath 0.5–1cm, soon forming rosette, shed early. |
dimorphic, spirally arranged; foliage leaves (needles) (1–)2–5(–6) per fascicle, persisting 2–12 or more years, terete or ± 2–3-angled and rounded on abaxial surface, sessile, sheathed at base by 12–15 overlapping scale leaves, these (at least firmer basal ones) persisting for life of fascicle or shed after first season; resin canals 2 or more. |
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Pollen cones | ellipsoid, ca. 6–10mm, red. |
in dense, spikelike cluster around base of current year's growth, mostly ovoid to cylindric-conic, tan to yellow, red, blue, or lavender. |
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Seed(s) | cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric with conic base before opening, broadly lance-ovoid or ovoid to cylindric or ovoid-cylindric when open, 6–9(–11)cm, purple, aging red-brown, nearly sessile; apophyses much thickened, rounded, larger toward cone base; umbo central, usually depressed; prickle absent or weak, to 1mm, resin exudates amber. |
cones maturing in 2(–3) years, shed early or variously persistent, pendent to ± erect, at maturity conic or cylindric, sessile or stalked, shedding seed soon after maturity or variously serotinous (not opening upon maturity but much later); scales persistent, woody or pliable, surface of exposed apical portion of each scale (apophysis) thickened, with umbo (exposed scale surface of young cone) represented by a scar (sometimes apiculate) or extended into a hook, spur, claw, or prickle; bracts included. |
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x | =12. |
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2n | =24. |
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Pinus balfouriana |
Pinus |
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Habitat | Timberline and alpine meadows | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1500–3500m (4900–11500ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA
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North America; Mexico; Central America; Widespread in north temperate and north tropical (mountainous) regions; West Indies; Eurasia (including 1 crossing equator in Sumatra); n Africa; Pacific Islands in Sumatra |
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Discussion | Pinus balfouriana is the true "foxtail pine." In leaf character it is hardly, if at all, distinguishable from P. longaeva, but its strongly conic-based cones with distinctly shorter-prickled, sunken-centered umbos at once distinguish it from that species. Plants shown to be genetically distinct from the type (differences in chemistry, form, foliage, cone orientation, and seeds) have been called Pinus balfouriana subsp. austrina R.Mastrogiuseppe & J.Mastrogiuseppe. As in several other species or species complexes in Pinus, however, there is a problem with a character gradient involving related taxa. The evidence presented by D.K. Bailey (1970) and later by R.J. Mastrogiuseppe and J.D. Mastrogiuseppe (1980) could as well be used to indicate that P. balfouriana (with its two infraspecific taxa) and P. longaeva represent a single species of three subspecies or three varieties. The more conservative view of Bailey is followed here. Of conservation concern. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In many areas Pinus is a forest dominant, either early successional and thus weedy or often longer-lived and part of climax forest. Certain southern pines, especially fire successional species, have a "grass stage," i.e., the stem of the young seedling elongates little during the first several years and bears many long, curved leaves, the plant then reminiscent of a dense clump of grass. Nomenclature used here, and to a very large degree the taxonomy, follows Elbert L.Little Jr. (1971), former Chief Dendrologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Much work is being done with problematic groups, particularly complexes in Pinus contorta, the pinyons, the bristlecone pines, and P. ponderosa and related taxa. Considerable chemotaxonomic and genetic data are available on the genus, but coverage is far from comprehensive. Therefore, the conservative approach used in this treatment emphasizes external morphology. Users of this account of Pinus should note the following. Leaf measurements given herein are based on healthy, fully expanded growth, especially that of cone-bearing branches. Fascicle-sheath measurements are based on fully developed, unbroken sheaths, not on sheaths as they later break up. After pollen is shed, pollen cones may lengthen considerably. Measurements given below for pollen cones are those of the cones at the time that pollen is released. Colors of seed cones are those of mature, closed or newly opened cones, not of old, open, persistent cones or of weathered serotinous cones. Mature, open cones may be hygroscopic, closing partially or completely when wet. Descriptions of apophyses, too, are based on mature, closed or newly opened cones. Unlike characters of umbos of most species, characters of apophyses are much altered as the cone grows. The term "twig" is used here to refer to growth of the current season. Leaf dimorphism is a problem. In some species, for example, low rainfall and beyond-normal stresses in the environment can lead to sets of atypically short leaves. There are also pathologic abnormalities, e.g., "little-leaf" disease in Pinus echinata. Such responses are not accounted for. Two exotic species of Pinus have been reported as naturalized in the flora: P. nigra Arnott (Illinois) and P. thunbergiana Franco (P. thunbergii Parlatore) (Massachusetts). These are not included in the key below, where they would key to P. resinosa. Both are distinguished from that species by their fresh leaves, which bend—rather than break—when bent; by their pale silvery—not reddish brown—winter buds; by their seed-cone scales, some or all of which are minutely armed—rather than unarmed; and by their apophyses, which at the time of seed-shed are cream to light brown or gray—rather than light red-brown. They are distinguished from each other as follows: P. nigra —seed cones sessile with base rounded, terminal bud resinous, and leaves sometimes with central resin canals; and P. thunbergiana —seed cones stalked with base more or less truncate, terminal bud not resinous, and leaves lacking central resin canals. Pine (Pinus) has been adopted by Arkansas as the state tree. Southern pine (Pinus spp.) is the state tree of Alabama. Species ca. 100 (38 in the flora with 37 native and 1 widely naturalized). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus | Pinaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. balfouriana var. austrina, P. balfouriana subsp. austrina | Apinus, Strobus, Caryopitys | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Greville & Balfour: in A. Murray bis, Bot. Exped. Oregon 8: no. 618, plate 3, fig. 1. (1853) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1000. ; Gen Pl. ed. 5. 1753; Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 434, (1754) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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