Pinus longaeva |
Pinus monticola |
|
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bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine |
pin argenté, western white pine |
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Habit | Trees to 16m; trunk to 2m diam., strongly tapering; crown rounded, flattened (sheared), or irregular. | Trees to 70m; trunk to 2.5m diam., straight; crown narrowly conic, becoming broad and flattened. |
Bark | red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges. |
gray, distinctly platy, plates scaly. |
Branches | contorted, pendent; twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves. |
nearly whorled, spreading-ascending; twigs slender, pale red-brown, rusty puberulent and slightly glandular (rarely glabrous), aging purple-brown or gray, smooth. |
Buds | ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous. |
ellipsoid or cylindric, rust-colored, 0.4–0.5cm, slightly 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. |
5 per fascicle, spreading to ascending, persisting 3–4 years, 4–10cm × 0.7–1mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, blue-green, abaxial surface without evident stomatal lines, adaxial surfaces with evident stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex broadly to narrowly acute; sheath 1–1.5cm, shed early. |
Pollen cones | cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red. |
ellipsoid, 10–15mm, yellow. |
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, clustered, pendent, symmetric, lance-cylindric to ellipsoid-cylindric before opening, broadly lanceoloid to ellipsoid-cylindric when open, 10–25cm, creamy brown to yellowish, without purple or gray tints, resinous, stalks to 2cm; umbo terminal, depressed. |
2n | =24. |
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Pinus longaeva |
Pinus monticola |
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Habitat | Subalpine and alpine | Montane moist forests, lowland fog forests |
Elevation | 1700–3400m (5600–11200ft) | 0–3000m (0–9800ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; UT
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CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; WA; AB; BC
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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 monticola is the most important western source for matchwood. Its wood lacks the sugary exudates seen in P. lambertiana. Western white pine (Pinus monticola) is the state tree of Idaho. (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 | Strobus monticola |
Name authority | D. K. Bailey: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 57: 243. (1970) | Douglas ex D. Don: in Lambert, Descr. Pinus [ed. 3] 2: unnumbered page between 144 and 145. (1832) |
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