Pinus balfouriana
Pinus monophylla
foxtail pine
piñón, single leaf pinyon, single-leaf pine, singleleaf pinyon pine
gray to salmon or cinnamon, platy or irregularly deep-fissured or with irregular blocky plates.
red-brown, irregularly furrowed or cross-checked, scaly.
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.
spreading and ascending, persistent to near trunk base;
twigs stout, orange-brown, aging brown to gray, sometimes sparsely puberulent.
ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, 0.8–1cm, resinous.
ellipsoid, light red-brown, 0.5–0.7cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed.
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.
1(–2) per fascicle, ascending, persisting 4–6(–10) years, 2–6cm × 1.3–2(–2.5)mm, curved, terete (though often 2-grooved), gray-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins entire, apex subulate;
sheath 0.5–1cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early.
ellipsoid, ca. 6–10mm, red.
ellipsoid, ca. 10mm, yellow.
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, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly depressed-ovoid to nearly globose when open, 4–6(–8)cm, pale yellow-brown, nearly sessile;
apophyses thickened, slightly raised;
umbo subcentral, raised or depressed, nearly truncate, apiculate.
=24.
=24.
Pinus balfouriana
Pinus monophylla
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 monophylla hybridizes with P. edulis and P. quadrifolia.
Singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) is the state tree of Nevada.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
