Pinus muricata
Pinus longaeva
Bishop pine
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine
dark gray, deeply furrowed, ridges long, scaly-plated.
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges.
spreading-ascending, often contorted;
twigs stout to slender, orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
contorted, pendent;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
ovoid-cylindric, dark brown, 1–2.5cm, resinous.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
2 per fascicle, spreading to upcurved, persisting 2–3 years, 8–15cm × (1.2–)1.5(–2)mm, slightly twisted, dark yellow-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins strongly serrulate, apex abruptly conic-acute;
sheath to 1.5cm, base persistent.
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.
ellipsoid, to 5mm, orange.
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red.
cones maturing in 3 years, serotinous, long-persistent, mostly in whorls, mostly asymmetric, lanceoloid-ovoid before opening, curved-ovoid when open, 4–9cm, glossy bright to pale red-brown, sessile or on stalks to 1cm, mostly downcurved, scales with deep red-brown border distally on adaxial surface;
apophyses much thickened, the abaxial ones progressively more angulately dome-shaped toward base of cone;
umbo central, a stout-based, curved claw.
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.
=24.
Pinus muricata
Pinus longaeva
The several varieties described for Pinus muricata reflect the high variability in leaf characters and in degree of elaboration of apophysis and umbo in this species. The extremes can sometimes occur together.
Of conservation concern.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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.)
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
