Pinus cembroides
Pinus virginiana
Mexican pinyon, pino piñonero, piñón
Jersey pine, scrub pine, Virginia pine
red-brown to dark brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges broad, scaly.
gray-brown with irregular, scaly-plated ridges, on upper sections of trunk reddish, scaly.
spreading-ascending;
twigs red-brown, sometimes finely papillate, aging gray to gray-brown.
spreading-ascending to spreading-descending;
twigs slender, red- or purple-tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown to gray, rough.
ovoid to short cylindric, pale red-brown, 0.5–1.2cm, slightly resinous.
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–1cm, resinous or not resinous;
scale margins white-fringed.
(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.
2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3–4 years, 2–8cm × 1–1.5mm, strongly twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex narrowly acute;
sheath 0.4–1cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, to 10mm, yellow.
ellipsoid-cylindric, 10–20mm, red-brown or yellow.
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, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 5 years, symmetric, lance-ovoid or lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3–7(–8)cm, dull red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales rigid, with strong purple-red or purple-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly thickened, slightly elongate;
umbo central, low-pyramidal, with slender, stiff prickle.
=24.
=24.
Pinus cembroides
Pinus virginiana
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 virginiana is weedy and fire successional and often forms large stands. It is mostly too small and too profusely branched to be valued except as pulpwood.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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USDA Plants Database
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