Pinus ponderosa |
Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bull pine, pin à bois lourd, pinabete, pino real, ponderosa pine, western yellow pine, yellow pine |
ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine |
|||||||||
Habit | Trees to 72m; trunk to 2.5m diam., straight; crown broadly conic to rounded. | Trees to 24m; trunk to 1.5m diam. | ||||||||
Bark | yellow- to red-brown, deeply irregularly furrowed, cross-checked into broadly rectangular, scaly plates. |
|||||||||
Branches | descending to spreading-ascending; twigs stout (to 2cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker orange-brown, rough. |
|||||||||
Twigs | mostly red-brown, rarely glaucous. |
|||||||||
Buds | ovoid, to 2cm, fully 1cm broad, red-brown, very resinous; scale margins white-fringed. |
|||||||||
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. |
mainly 2–3 per fascicle, (7–)10–17cm × (1.2–)1.4–2mm. |
||||||||
Pollen cones | ellipsoid-cylindric, 1.5–3.5cm, yellow or red. |
yellow. |
||||||||
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 mostly symmetric, 5–10cm; apophyses of fertile scales moderately raised; umbo low pyramidal, narrowing acuminately to a stout-based prickle or short sharp spur.; seed body 3–4mm; wing to 15mm. |
||||||||
Pinus ponderosa |
Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum |
|||||||||
Habitat | Tablelands, canyon slopes and rims, and foothills, western Great Plains, Rocky Mountains | |||||||||
Elevation | 1000–3000m (3300–9800ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; BC; Mexico
|
AZ; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; BC; Mexico |
||||||||
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.) |
The most important timber pine of the Rocky Mountains is Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorum. It intergrades with P. ponderosa var. ponderosa in Idaho, Montana, and Washington, and with P. ponderosa var. arizonica in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus | Pinaceae > Pinus > Pinus ponderosa | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. brachyptera, P. scopulorum | |||||||||
Name authority | Douglas ex Lawson & C. Lawson: Agric. Man. 354. (1836) | Engelmann: in S. Watson, Bot. California 2: 126. (1880) | ||||||||
Web links |
|