Pinus longaeva |
Pinus edulis |
|
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bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine |
Colorado pinyon, pinyon, piñon pine, piñón, two needle pinyon pine, two-needle pinyon |
|
Habit | Trees to 16m; trunk to 2m diam., strongly tapering; crown rounded, flattened (sheared), or irregular. | Shrubs or trees to 21m; trunk to 0.6m diam., strongly tapering, erect; crown conic, rounded, dense. |
Bark | red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges. |
red-brown, shallowly and irregularly furrowed, ridges scaly, rounded. |
Branches | contorted, pendent; twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves. |
persistent to near trunk base; twigs pale red-brown to tan, rarely glaucous, aging gray-brown to gray, glabrous to papillose-puberulent. |
Buds | ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous. |
ovoid to ellipsoid, red-brown, 0.5–1cm, resinous. |
Leaves | 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. |
(1–)2(–3) per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 4–6 years, 2–4cm × (0.9–)1–1.5mm, connivent, 2-sided (1-leaved fascicles with leaves 2-grooved, 3-leaved fascicles with leaves 3-sided), blue-green, all surfaces marked with pale stomatal bands, particularly the adaxial, margins entire or finely serrulate, apex narrowly acute to subulate; sheath 0.5–0.7cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early. |
Pollen cones | cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red. |
ellipsoid, ca. 7mm, yellowish to red-brown. |
Seed(s) | 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, depressed-ovoid to nearly globose when open, ca. (3.5–)4(–5)cm, pale yellow- to pale red-brown, resinous, nearly sessile to short-stalked; apophyses thickened, raised, angulate; umbo subcentral, slightly raised or depressed, truncate or umbilicate. |
2n | =24. |
|
Pinus longaeva |
Pinus edulis |
|
Habitat | Subalpine and alpine | Dry mountain slopes, mesas, plateaus, and pinyon-juniper woodland |
Elevation | 1700–3400m (5600–11200ft) | 1500–2100(–2700)m (4900–6900(–8900)ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; UT
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AZ; CA; CO; NM; OK; TX; UT; WY; Mexico in Chihuahua
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Discussion | 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 edulis var. fallax Little (P. californiarum subsp. fallax (Little) D.K.Bailey) appears to combine features of P. edulis and P. monophylla. More study is needed. Seeds of Pinus edulis, the commonest southwestern United States pinyon, are much eaten and traded by Native Americans. Pinyon (Pinus edulis) is the state tree of New Mexico. (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 | P. aristata var. longaeva | Caryopitys edulis, P. cembroides var. edulis |
Name authority | D. K. Bailey: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 57: 243. (1970) | Engelmann: in Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico 88. (1848) |
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