Pinus flexilis |
Pinus quadrifolia |
|
---|---|---|
limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest |
four-needle pinyon, nut pine, Parry pine, Parry pinyon, Parry pinyon pine, piñón, piñón de California |
|
Habit | Trees to 26m; trunk to 2m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded. | Trees to 10m; trunk to 0.5m diam., straight, much branched; crown dense, becoming rounded. |
Bark | gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges. |
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked to irregularly rectangular, plates scaly. |
Branches | spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base; twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth. |
spreading to ascending, persistent to trunk base; twigs slender, pale orange-brown, puberulent-glandular, aging brown to gray-brown. |
Buds | ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous; lower scales ciliolate along margins. |
ovoid, light red-brown, ca. 0.4–0.5cm, slightly resinous. |
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–)4(–5) per fascicle, persisting 3–4 years, (2–)3–6cm × (1–)1.2–1.7mm, curved, connivent, stiff, green to blue-green, margins entire to minutely scaly-denticulate, finely serrulate, apex subulate, adaxial surfaces mostly strongly whitened with stomatal bands, abaxial surface not so but 2 subepidermal resin bands evident; sheath 0.5–0.6cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early. |
Pollen cones | broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow. |
ovoid, ca. 10mm, yellowish. |
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, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid to depressed-globose when open, (3–)4–8(–10)cm, pale yellow-brown, sessile to short-stalked, apophyses thickened, strongly raised, diamond-shaped, transversely keeled, umbo subcentral, low-pyramidal or sunken, blunt. |
2n | =24. |
|
Pinus flexilis |
Pinus quadrifolia |
|
Habitat | High montane forests, often at timberline | Dry rocky sites |
Elevation | (1000–)1500–3600m ((3300–)4900–11800ft) | 1200–1800m (3900–5900ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; BC
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CA; Mexico in Baja California
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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.) |
Pinus quadrifolia is the rarest pinyon in the flora. It hybridizes naturally with P. monophylla. (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. cembroides var. parryana, P. juarezensis, P. parryana |
Name authority | E. James: Account Exped. Pittsburgh 2: 27, 35. (1823) | Parlatore ex Sudworth: U.S.D.A. Div. Forest. Bull. 14: 17. (1897) |
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