Pinus rigida
Pinus aristata
pin rigide, pitch pine
bristlecone pine, Colorado bristlecone pine, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine
red-brown, deeply and irregularly furrowed, with long, irregularly rectangular, flat, scaly ridges, resin pockets absent.
gray to red-brown, shallowly fissured, with long, flat, irregular ridges.
arching-spreading to ascending, poorly self-pruning; 2-year-old branchlets stout (mostly over 5mm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
contorted;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, red-brown, ca. 1–1.5cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed, apex cuspidate.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
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.
5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–17 years, (2–)3–4cm × 0.8–1mm, mostly connivent, deep blue-green, with drops and scales of resin, abaxial surface with strong, narrow median groove, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by stomates, margins entire or distantly serrulate, apex conic-acute to conic-subulate;
sheath 0.5–1.5cm, scales soon recurving, shed early.
cylindric, ca. 20mm, yellow.
ellipsoid, ca. 10mm, bluish to red.
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.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric before opening, lance-ovoid to ovoid or cylindric when open, 6–11cm, purple to brown, nearly sessile;
apophyses much thickened;
umbo central, with triangular base, extended into slender, brittle prickle 4–10mm.
=24.
=24.
Pinus rigida
Pinus aristata
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.)
Pinus aristata has leaves usually narrower and sharper than in P. longaeva and P. balfouriana, and the leaves almost always have a narrow, median groove on the abaxial surface.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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