Pinus flexilis |
Pinus attenuata |
|
---|---|---|
limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest |
knobcone pine |
|
Habit | Trees to 26m; trunk to 2m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded. | Shrubs or trees to 24m; trunk to 0.8m diam., usually straight; crown mostly narrowly to broadly conic. |
Bark | gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges. |
purple-brown to dark brown, shallowly and narrowly fissured, with irregular, flat, loose-scaly plates, on upper sections of trunk nearly smooth. |
Branches | spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base; twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth. |
ascending; twigs slender, red-brown. |
Buds | ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous; lower scales ciliolate along margins. |
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, dark red-brown, aging darker, ca. 1.5cm, resinous; scale margins fringed, apex attenuate. |
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. |
3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 4–5 years, (8–)9–15(–20)cm × (1–)1.3–1.8mm, straight or slightly curved, twisted, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly conic-subulate; sheath (1–)1.5–2cm, base persistent. |
Pollen cones | broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow. |
ellipsoid-cylindric, 10–15mm, orange-brown. |
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. |
cones maturing in 2 years, serotinous, long-persistent, remaining closed for 20 years or more, or opening on burning, in whorls, hard and heavy, very asymmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid-cylindric when open, 8–15cm, yellow- or pale red-brown, stalks to 1cm; apophyses toward outside base increasingly elongate, mammillate or raised-angled-conic, downcurved near base, scarcely raised on branchlet side, rhombic; umbo central, low-pyramidal, sharp, upcurved. |
2n | =24. |
=24. |
Pinus flexilis |
Pinus attenuata |
|
Habitat | High montane forests, often at timberline | Fire successional on dry slopes and foothills of Sierra Nevada and the Cascade and Coast ranges |
Elevation | (1000–)1500–3600m ((3300–)4900–11800ft) | 300–1200m (1000–3900ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; BC
|
CA; OR; Mexico in Baja California
|
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.) |
Pinus attenuata, mostly a chaparral species, bears cones at an early age. Its seed crops are heavy, and a hot fire permits the seeds to be released. It forms hybrids with P. muricata and P. radiata. (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 | ||
Synonyms | Apinus flexilis | P. tuberculata |
Name authority | E. James: Account Exped. Pittsburgh 2: 27, 35. (1823) | Lemmon: Mining Sci. Press 64: 45. (1892) |
Web links |