Pinus edulis |
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Colorado pinyon, pinyon, piñon pine, piñón, two needle pinyon pine, two-needle pinyon |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees to 21m; trunk to 0.6m diam., strongly tapering, erect; crown conic, rounded, dense. |
Bark | red-brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges scaly, rounded. |
Branches | persistent to near trunk base; twigs pale red-brown to tan, rarely glaucous, aging gray-brown to gray, glabrous to papillose-puberulent. |
Buds | ovoid to ellipsoid, red-brown, 0.5–1cm, resinous. |
Leaves | (1–)2(–3) per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 4–6 years, 2–4cm × (0.9–)1–1.5mm, connivent, 2-sided (1-leaved fascicles with leaves 2-grooved, 3-leaved fascicles with leaves 3-sided), blue-green, all surfaces marked with pale stomatal bands, particularly the adaxial, margins entire or finely serrulate, apex narrowly acute to subulate; sheath 0.5–0.7cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early. |
Pollen cones | ellipsoid, ca. 7mm, yellowish to red-brown. |
Seed(s) | cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, depressed-ovoid to nearly globose when open, ca. (3.5–)4(–5)cm, pale yellow- to pale red-brown, resinous, nearly sessile to short-stalked; apophyses thickened, raised, angulate; umbo subcentral, slightly raised or depressed, truncate or umbilicate. |
2n | =24. |
Pinus edulis |
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Habitat | Dry mountain slopes, mesas, plateaus, and pinyon-juniper woodland |
Elevation | 1500–2100(–2700)m (4900–6900(–8900)ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; NM; OK; TX; UT; WY; Mexico in Chihuahua
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Discussion | Pinus edulis var. fallax Little (P. californiarum subsp. fallax (Little) D.K.Bailey) appears to combine features of P. edulis and P. monophylla. More study is needed. Seeds of Pinus edulis, the commonest southwestern United States pinyon, are much eaten and traded by Native Americans. Pinyon (Pinus edulis) is the state tree of New Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 2. |
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Caryopitys edulis, P. cembroides var. edulis |
Name authority | Engelmann: in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico 88. (1848) |
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