Pinus ponderosa |
Pinus longaeva |
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bull pine, pin à bois lourd, pinabete, pino real, ponderosa pine, western yellow pine, yellow pine |
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine |
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Habit | Trees to 72m; trunk to 2.5m diam., straight; crown broadly conic to rounded. | Trees to 16m; trunk to 2m diam., strongly tapering; crown rounded, flattened (sheared), or irregular. | ||||||||
Bark | yellow- to red-brown, deeply irregularly furrowed, cross-checked into broadly rectangular, scaly plates. |
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges. |
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Branches | descending to spreading-ascending; twigs stout (to 2cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker orange-brown, rough. |
contorted, pendent; twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves. |
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Buds | ovoid, to 2cm, fully 1cm broad, red-brown, very resinous; scale margins white-fringed. |
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous. |
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Leaves | 2–5 per fascicle, spreading to erect, persisting (2–)4–6(–7) years, 7–25(–30)cm × (1–)1.2–2mm, slightly twisted, tufted at twig tips, pliant, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with evident stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly to narrowly acute or acuminate; sheath 1.5–3cm, 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. |
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Pollen cones | ellipsoid-cylindric, 1.5–3.5cm, yellow or red. |
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red. |
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Seed(s) | cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, leaving rosettes of scales on branchlets, solitary or rarely in pairs, spreading to reflexed, symmetric to slightly asymmetric, conic-ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid when open, 5–15cm, mostly reddish brown, sessile to nearly sessile, scales in steep spirals (as compared to Pinus jeffreyi) of 5–7 per row as viewed from side, those of cones just prior to and after cone fall spreading and reflexed, thus well separate from adjacent scales; apophyses dull to lustrous, thickened and variously raised and transversely keeled; umbo central, usually pyramidal to truncated, rarely depressed, merely acute, or with a very short apiculus, or with a stout-based spur or prickle. |
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. |
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Pinus ponderosa |
Pinus longaeva |
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Habitat | Subalpine and alpine | |||||||||
Elevation | 1700–3400m (5600–11200ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; BC; Mexico
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CA; NV; UT
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Discussion | Pinus ponderosa is the most economically important western yellow pine. Its wood is more similar in character to the white pines, and it is often referred to as white pine. The taxonomy of this complex is far from resolved. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) is the state tree of Montana. Varieties 3 (3 in the flora). (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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus | Pinaceae > Pinus | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. aristata var. longaeva | |||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Lawson & C. Lawson: Agric. Man. 354. (1836) | D. K. Bailey: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 57: 243. (1970) | ||||||||
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