Pinus longaeva |
Pinus pungens |
|
---|---|---|
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine |
hickory pine, mountain pine, prickley pine, table mountain pine |
|
Habit | Trees to 16m; trunk to 2m diam., strongly tapering; crown rounded, flattened (sheared), or irregular. | Trees to 12m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked, erect to leaning, poorly self-pruning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. |
Bark | red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges. |
red- to gray-brown, irregularly checked into scaly plates. |
Branches | contorted, pendent; twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves. |
horizontally spreading; twigs slender, orange- to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough. |
Buds | ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous. |
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–0.9cm, 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. |
2(–3) per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3 years, 3–6(–8)cm × 1–1.5mm, twisted, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins harshly serrulate, apex acute to short-acuminate; sheath 0.5–1cm, base persistent. |
Pollen cones | cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red. |
ellipsoid, ca. 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, variably serotinous, mostly whorled, downcurved, asymmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid when open, (4–)6–10cm, gray- to pale red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1cm; apophyses thickened, diamond-shaped, strongly keeled, elongate, mammillate at cone base abaxially; umbo central, a stout, curved, sharp claw. |
2n | =24. |
|
Pinus longaeva |
Pinus pungens |
|
Habitat | Subalpine and alpine | Dry, mostly sandy or shaly uplands, Appalachians and associated Piedmont |
Elevation | 1700–3400m (5600–11200ft) | 500–1350m (1600–4400ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; UT
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DE; GA; MD; NC; NJ; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
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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 pungens is a scrub pine and is too small and knotty to be much utilized except for pulpwood and firewood. Its common name refers to a general type of landform, not to a specific, named mountain. (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 | |
Name authority | D. K. Bailey: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 57: 243. (1970) | Lambert: Ann. Bot. (London) 2: 198. (1805) |
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