Pinus longaeva
Pinus cembroides
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine
Mexican pinyon, pino piñonero, piñón
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges.
red-brown to dark brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges broad, scaly.
contorted, pendent;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
spreading-ascending;
twigs red-brown, sometimes finely papillate, aging gray to gray-brown.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
ovoid to short cylindric, pale red-brown, 0.5–1.2cm, slightly resinous.
mostly 5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–30 years, 1.5–3.5cm × 0.8–1.2mm, mostly connivent, deep yellow-green, with few resin splotches but often scurfy with pale scales, abaxial surface without median groove but with 2 subepidermal but evident resin bands, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened with stomates, margins entire or remotely and finely serrulate distally, apex bluntly acute to short-acuminate;
sheath ca. 1cm, soon forming rosette, shed early.
(2–)3(–4) per fascicle, spreading to upcurved, persisting 3–4 years, 2–6cm × 0.6–0.9(–1)mm, connivent, 2–3-sided, blue- to gray-green, abaxial surface not conspicuously whitened with stomatal bands or if stomatal bands present, these less conspicuous than on adaxial surfaces, often with 2 subepidermal resin bands evident, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened with stomatal lines, margins entire to finely serrulate, apex narrowly conic or subulate;
sheath 0.5–0.7cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early.
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red.
ellipsoid, to 10mm, yellow.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric with rounded base before opening, lance-cylindric to narrowly ovoid when open, 6–9.5cm, purple, aging red-brown, nearly sessile;
apophyses much thickened, sharply keeled;
umbo central, raised on low buttress, truncate to umbilicate, abruptly narrowed to slender but stiff, variable prickle 1–6mm, resin exudate pale.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly depressed-ovoid to nearly globose when open, 1–3.5cm, pale yellow- to pale red-brown, resinous, nearly sessile or short-stalked;
apophyses thickened, slightly domed, angulate, transversely keeled;
umbo subcentral, slightly raised to depressed, truncate or umbilicate.
=24.
Pinus longaeva
Pinus cembroides
Pinus longaeva is considered by dendrochronologists to be the longest-lived tree. One tree was estimated to be 5000 years old.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Pinus cembroides is the common pinyon of Mexican commerce. Populations of the Edwards Plateau, Texas, are disjunct about 150km east and north of the main area of distribution of the species, and they have been described as a distinct variety, P. cembroides var. remota Little, on the basis of thin seed shell and a higher frequency of 2-leaved fascicles in contrast to the thicker seed shell and prevalently 3-leaved fascicles in Mexican pinyon populations to the west and south. The strong overlap in nearly all character states between the populations of the Edwards Plateau and other populations makes var. remota difficult to maintain.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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