Pinus flexilis
Pinus elliottii
limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest
slash pine
gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges.
orange- to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates.
spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base;
twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout (to ca. 1cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly.
ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous;
lower scales ciliolate along margins.
cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5–2cm;
scale margins fringed.
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.
2 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15–20(–23)cm × 1.2–1.5mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow- to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow.
cylindric, 30–40mm, purplish.
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, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7–)9–18(–20)cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3cm;
apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled;
umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle.
=24.
Pinus flexilis
Pinus elliottii
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.)
Varieties 2 (native only in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Seedlings essentially without grass stage, buds thus scattered on the stem; leaves mostly in 3s, sometimes in 2s on same shoot; resin canals 3-5 per leaf; base of open cone ± truncate. | var. elliottii |
1. Seedlings tending toward a grass stage, buds thus crowded on contracted stems; leaves mostly in 2s, sometimes in 3s on same shoot; resin canals 3-9 per leaf; base of open cone rounded. | var. densa |
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CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
SW CO Wildflowers
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
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