Pinus flexilis
Pinus rigida
limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest
pin rigide, pitch pine
gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges.
red-brown, deeply and irregularly furrowed, with long, irregularly rectangular, flat, scaly ridges, resin pockets absent.
spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base;
twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth.
arching-spreading to ascending, poorly self-pruning; 2-year-old branchlets stout (mostly over 5mm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous;
lower scales ciliolate along margins.
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, red-brown, ca. 1–1.5cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed, apex cuspidate.
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(–5) per fascicle, spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 5–10(–15)cm × 1–1.5(–2)mm, straight, twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly subulate-acuminate;
sheath 0.9–1.2cm, base persistent.
broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow.
cylindric, ca. 20mm, yellow.
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 soon thereafter or variously serotinous and long-persistent, often clustered, symmetric, conic to ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid with flat or slightly convex base when open, 3–9cm, creamy brown to light red-brown, sessile to short-stalked, base truncate, scales firm, with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly raised, rhombic, with strong transverse keels;
umbo central, low-triangular, with slender, downcurved prickle.
=24.
=24.
Pinus flexilis
Pinus rigida
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 rigida often has poor form and is not valued highly as saw timber. It is fire successional, sprouts adventitiously, and is frequently shrubby in the northern part of its range. It is known to hybridize naturally with P. echinata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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