Pinus balfouriana
Pinus coulteri
foxtail pine
big-cone pine, Coulter pine
gray to salmon or cinnamon, platy or irregularly deep-fissured or with irregular blocky plates.
dark gray-brown to near black, deeply furrowed, with long, scaly, irregularly anastomosing, rounded ridges.
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.
often ascending;
twigs stout to moderately slender, violet-brown, often glaucous, aging gray-brown, rough.
ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, 0.8–1cm, resinous.
ovoid, deep red-brown, 1.5(–3)cm, resinous;
scale margins white-fringed, apex cuspidate.
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.
3 per fascicle, slightly spreading, not drooping, mostly ascending in a brush, persisting 3–4 years, 15–30cm × ca. 2mm, slightly curved or straight, twisted, dusty gray-green, all surfaces with pale, fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly subulate;
sheath 2–4cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, ca. 6–10mm, red.
ovoid to cylindric, to 25mm, light purple-brown, aging orange-brown.
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 years, gradually shedding seeds thereafter and moderately persistent, massive, heavy, drooping, asymmetric at base, narrowly ovoid before opening, ovoid-cylindric when open, 20–35cm, pale yellow-brown, resinous, stalks to 3cm;
apophyses transverse-rhombic, strongly and sharply cross-keeled, elongate, curved, continuous with umbos to form long, upcurved claws 2.5–3cm.
=24.
=24.
Pinus balfouriana
Pinus coulteri
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.)
Pinus coulteri is the heaviest-coned pine; one who seeks its shade should wear a hardhat.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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