Pinus cembroides
Pinus serotina
Mexican pinyon, pino piñonero, piñón
marsh pine, pocosin pine, pond pine
red-brown to dark brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges broad, scaly.
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into rectangular, flat, scaly plates.
spreading-ascending;
twigs red-brown, sometimes finely papillate, aging gray to gray-brown.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout, orange- to yellow-orange, frequently glaucous, aging darker.
ovoid to short cylindric, pale red-brown, 0.5–1.2cm, slightly resinous.
ovoid to narrowly ovoid, red-brown, 1–1.5(–2)cm, resinous.
(2–)3(–4) per fascicle, spreading to upcurved, persisting 3–4 years, 2–6cm × 0.6–0.9(–1)mm, connivent, 2–3-sided, blue- to gray-green, abaxial surface not conspicuously whitened with stomatal bands or if stomatal bands present, these less conspicuous than on adaxial surfaces, often with 2 subepidermal resin bands evident, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened with stomatal lines, margins entire to finely serrulate, apex narrowly conic or subulate;
sheath 0.5–0.7cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early.
3 per fascicle (to 5 in adventitious or disturbed growth), spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, (12–)15–20(–21)cm × 1.3–1.5(–2)mm, slightly twisted, tufted at twig tips, straight, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, to 10mm, yellow.
cylindric, to 30mm, yellow-brown.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly depressed-ovoid to nearly globose when open, 1–3.5cm, pale yellow- to pale red-brown, resinous, nearly sessile or short-stalked;
apophyses thickened, slightly domed, angulate, transversely keeled;
umbo subcentral, slightly raised to depressed, truncate or umbilicate.
cones maturing in 2 years, in some populations beginning to shed seeds then but more often variably serotinous, long-persistent, often whorled, symmetric, ovoid to lanceoloid before opening, broadly ovoid to nearly globose when open, 5–8cm, pale red-brown to creamy brown, sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly thickened, low, rhombic, low cross-keeled;
umbo central, low-conic, with short, weak prickle, sometimes unarmed.
=24.
=24.
Pinus cembroides
Pinus serotina
Pinus cembroides is the common pinyon of Mexican commerce. Populations of the Edwards Plateau, Texas, are disjunct about 150km east and north of the main area of distribution of the species, and they have been described as a distinct variety, P. cembroides var. remota Little, on the basis of thin seed shell and a higher frequency of 2-leaved fascicles in contrast to the thicker seed shell and prevalently 3-leaved fascicles in Mexican pinyon populations to the west and south. The strong overlap in nearly all character states between the populations of the Edwards Plateau and other populations makes var. remota difficult to maintain.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Pinus serotina is fire successional and sprouts adventitiously after crown fires. It is part of a distinct forest type including Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) Richard, Nyssa biflora Walter, Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus, Persea sp., and Ilex sp. Of good form when protected from fire, P. serotina then much resembles P. taeda, with which it hybridizes naturally. It is of increasing importance as pulpwood.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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