Pinus quadrifolia
Pinus sabiniana
four-needle pinyon, nut pine, Parry pine, Parry pinyon, Parry pinyon pine, piñón, piñón de California
California foothill pine, digger pine, foothill pine, ghost, gray, gray pine, or foothill pine
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked to irregularly rectangular, plates scaly.
dark brown to near black, irregularly and deeply furrowed, ridges irregularly rectangular or blocky, scaly, often breaking away, bases of furrows and underbark orangish.
spreading to ascending, persistent to trunk base;
twigs slender, pale orange-brown, puberulent-glandular, aging brown to gray-brown.
often ascending;
cone-bearing branchlets stout, twigs comparatively slender, both pale purple-brown and glaucous, aging gray, rough.
ovoid, light red-brown, ca. 0.4–0.5cm, slightly resinous.
ovoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous;
scale margins white-fringed.
(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.
mostly 3 per fascicle, drooping, persisting 3–4 years, 15–32cm × 1.5mm, slightly twisted, dull blue-green, all surfaces with pale, narrow stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex short-acuminate;
sheath to 2.4cm, base persistent.
ovoid, ca. 10mm, yellowish.
ellipsoid, 10–15mm, yellow.
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, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 7 years, pendent, massive, heavy, nearly symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, 15–25cm, dull brown, resinous, stalks to 5cm;
apophyses elongate, curved, continuous with umbos to form long, upcurved claws to 2cm.
= 24.
Pinus quadrifolia
Pinus sabiniana
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.)
Seeds of Pinus sabiniana were an important food source for many Indian groups in California, sometimes collectively referred to as "Digger Indians." Because the name "Digger" has been used as a derogatory ethnic term, many people prefer to avoid using the vernacular name Digger pine.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
