Pinus balfouriana |
Pinus pungens |
|
---|---|---|
foxtail pine |
hickory pine, mountain pine, prickley pine, table mountain pine |
|
Habit | Trees to 22m; trunk to 2.6m diam., erect or leaning; crown broadly conic to irregular. | Trees to 12m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked, erect to leaning, poorly self-pruning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. |
Bark | gray to salmon or cinnamon, platy or irregularly deep-fissured or with irregular blocky plates. |
red- to gray-brown, irregularly checked into scaly plates. |
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. |
horizontally spreading; twigs slender, orange- to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough. |
Buds | ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, 0.8–1cm, resinous. |
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–0.9cm, resinous. |
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. |
2(–3) per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3 years, 3–6(–8)cm × 1–1.5mm, twisted, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins harshly serrulate, apex acute to short-acuminate; sheath 0.5–1cm, base persistent. |
Pollen cones | ellipsoid, ca. 6–10mm, red. |
ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, yellow. |
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 years, variably serotinous, mostly whorled, downcurved, asymmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid when open, (4–)6–10cm, gray- to pale red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1cm; apophyses thickened, diamond-shaped, strongly keeled, elongate, mammillate at cone base abaxially; umbo central, a stout, curved, sharp claw. |
2n | =24. |
=24. |
Pinus balfouriana |
Pinus pungens |
|
Habitat | Timberline and alpine meadows | Dry, mostly sandy or shaly uplands, Appalachians and associated Piedmont |
Elevation | 1500–3500m (4900–11500ft) | 500–1350m (1600–4400ft) |
Distribution |
CA
|
DE; GA; MD; NC; NJ; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
|
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.) |
Pinus pungens is a scrub pine and is too small and knotty to be much utilized except for pulpwood and firewood. Its common name refers to a general type of landform, not to a specific, named mountain. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. |
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus | Pinaceae > Pinus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. balfouriana var. austrina, P. balfouriana subsp. austrina | |
Name authority | Greville & Balfour: in A. Murray bis, Bot. Exped. Oregon 8: no. 618, plate 3, fig. 1. (1853) | Lambert: Ann. Bot. (London) 2: 198. (1805) |
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