The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

hickory pine, mountain pine, prickley pine, table mountain pine

Jack pine, pin gris, scrub pine

Habit Trees to 12m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked, erect to leaning, poorly self-pruning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. Trees to 27m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked; crown becoming irregularly rounded or spreading and flattened.
Bark

red- to gray-brown, irregularly checked into scaly plates.

orange- to red-brown, scaly.

Branches

horizontally spreading;

twigs slender, orange- to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough.

descending to spreading-ascending, poorly self-pruning;

twigs slender, orange-red to red-brown, aging gray-brown, rough.

Buds

ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–0.9cm, resinous.

ovoid, red-brown, 0.5–1cm, resinous;

scale margins nearly entire.

Leaves

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.

2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 2–5cm × 1–1.5(–2)mm, twisted, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex acute to short-subulate;

sheath 0.3–0.6cm, semipersistent.

Pollen cones

ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, yellow.

cylindric, 10–15mm, yellow to orange-brown.

Seed(s)

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.

cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter or often long-serotinous and shedding seeds only through age or fire, upcurved, asymmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3–5.5cm, tan to light brown or greenish yellow, slick, nearly sessile or short-stalked, most apophyses depressed but increasingly mammillate toward outer cone base;

umbo central, depressed, small, sunken centrally, unarmed or with a small, reflexed apiculus.

2n

=24.

=24.

Pinus pungens

Pinus banksiana

Habitat Dry, mostly sandy or shaly uplands, Appalachians and associated Piedmont Fire successional in boreal forests, tundra transition, dry flats, and hills, sandy soils
Elevation 500–1350m (1600–4400ft) 0–800m (0–2600ft)
Distribution
from FNA
DE; GA; MD; NC; NJ; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
IL; IN; ME; MI; MN; NH; NY; PA; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Pinus banksiana reaches its largest size and best form in Canada. In western Alberta and in northeastern British Columbia, it is sympatric with P. contorta and forms hybrid swarms with that species.

Jack pine (Pinus banksiana) is the territorial tree of the Northwest Territories.

(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
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. balfouriana, P. banksiana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. edulis, P. elliottii, P. engelmannii, P. flexilis, P. glabra, P. jeffreyi, P. lambertiana, P. leiophylla, P. longaeva, P. monophylla, P. monticola, P. muricata, P. palustris, P. ponderosa, P. quadrifolia, P. radiata, P. resinosa, P. rigida, P. sabiniana, P. serotina, P. strobiformis, P. strobus, P. sylvestris, P. taeda, P. torreyana, P. virginiana, P. washoensis
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. balfouriana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. edulis, P. elliottii, P. engelmannii, P. flexilis, P. glabra, P. jeffreyi, P. lambertiana, P. leiophylla, P. longaeva, P. monophylla, P. monticola, P. muricata, P. palustris, P. ponderosa, P. pungens, P. quadrifolia, P. radiata, P. resinosa, P. rigida, P. sabiniana, P. serotina, P. strobiformis, P. strobus, P. sylvestris, P. taeda, P. torreyana, P. virginiana, P. washoensis
Synonyms P. divaricata, P. sylvestris var. divaricata
Name authority Lambert: Ann. Bot. (London) 2: 198. (1805) Lambert: Descr. Pinus 1: 7, plate 3. (1803)
Web links