Pinus flexilis |
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limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest |
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Habit | Trees to 26m; trunk to 2m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded. |
Bark | gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges. |
Branches | spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base; twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth. |
Buds | ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous; lower scales ciliolate along margins. |
Leaves | 5 per fascicle, spreading to upcurved and ascending, persisting 5–6 years, 3–7cm × 1–1.5mm, pliant, dark green, abaxial surface with less conspicuous stomatal bands than adaxial surfaces, adaxial surfaces with strong, pale stomatal bands, margins finely serrulate, apex conic-acute to acuminate; sheath 1–1.5(–2)cm, shed early. |
Pollen cones | broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow. |
Seed(s) | cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, cylindro-ovoid when open, 7–15cm, straw-colored, resinous, sessile to short-stalked, apophyses much thickened, strongly cross-keeled, umbo terminal, depressed. |
2n | =24. |
Pinus flexilis |
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Habitat | High montane forests, often at timberline |
Elevation | (1000–)1500–3600m ((3300–)4900–11800ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; BC
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Discussion | Pinus flexilis, much branched with a strongly tapering trunk, is little utilized because of its form and relative inaccessibility. It reportedly forms intermediates with P. strobiformis where the two overlap. The fresh-cut wood has the odor of turpentine. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 2. |
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Apinus flexilis |
Name authority | E. James: Account Exped. Pittsburgh 2: 27, 35. (1823) |
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