Pinus pungens
Pinus elliottii
hickory pine, mountain pine, prickley pine, table mountain pine
slash pine
red- to gray-brown, irregularly checked into scaly plates.
orange- to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates.
horizontally spreading;
twigs slender, orange- to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout (to ca. 1cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly.
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–0.9cm, resinous.
cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5–2cm;
scale margins fringed.
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 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15–20(–23)cm × 1.2–1.5mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow- to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, yellow.
cylindric, 30–40mm, purplish.
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, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7–)9–18(–20)cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3cm;
apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled;
umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle.
=24.
Pinus pungens
Pinus elliottii
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.)
Varieties 2 (native only in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Seedlings essentially without grass stage, buds thus scattered on the stem; leaves mostly in 3s, sometimes in 2s on same shoot; resin canals 3-5 per leaf; base of open cone ± truncate. | var. elliottii |
1. Seedlings tending toward a grass stage, buds thus crowded on contracted stems; leaves mostly in 2s, sometimes in 3s on same shoot; resin canals 3-9 per leaf; base of open cone rounded. | var. densa |
MD Biodiversity
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