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Colorado pinyon, pinyon, piñon pine, piñón, two needle pinyon pine, two-needle pinyon

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

Habitat Dry mountain slopes, mesas, plateaus, and pinyon-juniper woodland
Elevation 1500–2100(–2700)m (4900–6900(–8900)ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; OK; TX; UT; WY; Mexico in Chihuahua
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. balfouriana, P. banksiana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. elliottii, P. engelmannii, P. flexilis, P. glabra, P. jeffreyi, P. lambertiana, P. leiophylla, P. longaeva, P. monophylla, P. monticola, P. muricata, P. palustris, P. ponderosa, P. pungens, P. quadrifolia, P. radiata, P. resinosa, P. rigida, P. sabiniana, P. serotina, P. strobiformis, P. strobus, P. sylvestris, P. taeda, P. torreyana, P. virginiana, P. washoensis
Synonyms Caryopitys edulis, P. cembroides var. edulis
Name authority Engelmann: in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico 88. (1848)
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