The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

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

Jack pine, pin gris, scrub pine

Habit Shrubs or trees to 21m; trunk to 0.6m diam., strongly tapering, erect; crown conic, rounded, dense. Trees to 27m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked; crown becoming irregularly rounded or spreading and flattened.
Bark

red-brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges scaly, rounded.

orange- to red-brown, scaly.

Branches

persistent to near trunk base;

twigs pale red-brown to tan, rarely glaucous, aging gray-brown to gray, glabrous to papillose-puberulent.

descending to spreading-ascending, poorly self-pruning;

twigs slender, orange-red to red-brown, aging gray-brown, rough.

Buds

ovoid to ellipsoid, red-brown, 0.5–1cm, resinous.

ovoid, red-brown, 0.5–1cm, resinous;

scale margins nearly entire.

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.

2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 2–5cm × 1–1.5(–2)mm, twisted, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex acute to short-subulate;

sheath 0.3–0.6cm, semipersistent.

Pollen cones

ellipsoid, ca. 7mm, yellowish to red-brown.

cylindric, 10–15mm, yellow to orange-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.

cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter or often long-serotinous and shedding seeds only through age or fire, upcurved, asymmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3–5.5cm, tan to light brown or greenish yellow, slick, nearly sessile or short-stalked, most apophyses depressed but increasingly mammillate toward outer cone base;

umbo central, depressed, small, sunken centrally, unarmed or with a small, reflexed apiculus.

2n

=24.

=24.

Pinus edulis

Pinus banksiana

Habitat Dry mountain slopes, mesas, plateaus, and pinyon-juniper woodland Fire successional in boreal forests, tundra transition, dry flats, and hills, sandy soils
Elevation 1500–2100(–2700)m (4900–6900(–8900)ft) 0–800m (0–2600ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; NM; OK; TX; UT; WY; Mexico in Chihuahua
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
IL; IN; ME; MI; MN; NH; NY; PA; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK
[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.)

Pinus banksiana reaches its largest size and best form in Canada. In western Alberta and in northeastern British Columbia, it is sympatric with P. contorta and forms hybrid swarms with that species.

Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) is the territorial tree of the Northwest Territories.

(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
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
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. balfouriana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. edulis, 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 P. divaricata, P. sylvestris var. divaricata
Name authority Engelmann: in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico 88. (1848) Lambert: Descr. Pinus 1: 7, plate 3. (1803)
Web links