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four-needle pinyon, nut pine, Parry pine, Parry pinyon, Parry pinyon pine, piñón, piñón de California

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

Habit Trees to 10m; trunk to 0.5m diam., straight, much branched; crown dense, becoming rounded. Trees to 12m; trunk to 0.6m diam., straight to crooked, erect to leaning, poorly self-pruning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened.
Bark

red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked to irregularly rectangular, plates scaly.

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

Branches

spreading to ascending, persistent to trunk base;

twigs slender, pale orange-brown, puberulent-glandular, aging brown to gray-brown.

horizontally spreading;

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

Buds

ovoid, light red-brown, ca. 0.4–0.5cm, slightly resinous.

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

Leaves

(3–)4(–5) per fascicle, persisting 3–4 years, (2–)3–6cm × (1–)1.2–1.7mm, curved, connivent, stiff, green to blue-green, margins entire to minutely scaly-denticulate, finely serrulate, apex subulate, adaxial surfaces mostly strongly whitened with stomatal bands, abaxial surface not so but 2 subepidermal resin bands evident;

sheath 0.5–0.6cm, scales soon recurved, forming rosette, shed early.

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.

Pollen cones

ovoid, ca. 10mm, yellowish.

ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, yellow.

Seed(s)

cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid to depressed-globose when open, (3–)4–8(–10)cm, pale yellow-brown, sessile to short-stalked, apophyses thickened, strongly raised, diamond-shaped, transversely keeled, umbo subcentral, low-pyramidal or sunken, blunt.

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.

2n

=24.

Pinus quadrifolia

Pinus pungens

Habitat Dry rocky sites Dry, mostly sandy or shaly uplands, Appalachians and associated Piedmont
Elevation 1200–1800m (3900–5900ft) 500–1350m (1600–4400ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico in Baja California
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
DE; GA; MD; NC; NJ; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pinus quadrifolia is the rarest pinyon in the flora. It hybridizes naturally with P. monophylla.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

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.)

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. pungens, 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. 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
Synonyms P. cembroides var. parryana, P. juarezensis, P. parryana
Name authority Parlatore ex Sudworth: U.S.D.A. Div. Forest. Bull. 14: 17. (1897) Lambert: Ann. Bot. (London) 2: 198. (1805)
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