Pinus pungens
Pinus rigida
hickory pine, mountain pine, prickley pine, table mountain pine
pin rigide, pitch pine
red- to gray-brown, irregularly checked into scaly plates.
red-brown, deeply and irregularly furrowed, with long, irregularly rectangular, flat, scaly ridges, resin pockets absent.
horizontally spreading;
twigs slender, orange- to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
arching-spreading to ascending, poorly self-pruning; 2-year-old branchlets stout (mostly over 5mm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–0.9cm, resinous.
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, red-brown, ca. 1–1.5cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed, apex cuspidate.
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.
3(–5) per fascicle, spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 5–10(–15)cm × 1–1.5(–2)mm, straight, twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly subulate-acuminate;
sheath 0.9–1.2cm, base persistent.
ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, yellow.
cylindric, ca. 20mm, yellow.
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 variously serotinous and long-persistent, often clustered, symmetric, conic to ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid with flat or slightly convex base when open, 3–9cm, creamy brown to light red-brown, sessile to short-stalked, base truncate, scales firm, with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly raised, rhombic, with strong transverse keels;
umbo central, low-triangular, with slender, downcurved prickle.
=24.
=24.
Pinus pungens
Pinus rigida
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 rigida often has poor form and is not valued highly as saw timber. It is fire successional, sprouts adventitiously, and is frequently shrubby in the northern part of its range. It is known to hybridize naturally with P. echinata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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