Pinus longaeva
Pinus jeffreyi
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine
Jeffrey pine
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges.
yellow-brown to cinnamon, deeply furrowed and cross-checked, forming large irregular scaly plates.
contorted, pendent;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
spreading-ascending;
twigs stout (to 2cm thick), purple-brown, often glaucous, aging rough.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
ovoid, tan to pale red-brown, 2–3cm, not resinous;
scale margins conspicuously fringed.
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.
3 per fascicle, spreading-ascending, persisting (2–)4–6(–7) years, 12–22(–25)cm × ca. 1.5–2mm, slightly twisted, gray- to yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex acute to acuminate;
sheath (1–)1.5–2.5(–3)cm, base persistent.
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red.
lance-cylindric, 20–35mm, yellow to yellow- or purple-brown or 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, nearly terminal, spreading, slightly asymmetric at base, ovoid-conic before opening, cylindro-ovoid when open, (10–)15–30cm, light red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 0.5cm, abaxial surface of scales not darker than or sharply contrasting in color with adaxial surface, scales in low spirals (as compared to Pinus ponderosa) of 8 or more per row as viewed from side, those of cones just prior to and after cone fall not so spreading and deflexed, thus not so much separated from adjacent scales;
apophyses slightly thickened and raised, not keeled;
umbo central, slightly raised, with short, slender, reflexed prickle.
=24.
Pinus longaeva
Pinus jeffreyi
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 jeffreyi has a form very similar to that of P. ponderosa, but it is a smaller species when compared with sympatric populations of the latter. It is cut and sold under the same name as P. ponderosa, but the sweetish odor of the fresh-cut wood contrasts sharply with the turpentine odor of ponderosa pine. The resin chemistry of the two species is significantly different.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
