Pinus serotina
Pinus quadrifolia
marsh pine, pocosin pine, pond pine
four-needle pinyon, nut pine, Parry pine, Parry pinyon, Parry pinyon pine, piñón, piñón de California
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into rectangular, flat, scaly plates.
red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked to irregularly rectangular, plates scaly.
spreading to ascending;
twigs stout, orange- to yellow-orange, frequently glaucous, aging darker.
spreading to ascending, persistent to trunk base;
twigs slender, pale orange-brown, puberulent-glandular, aging brown to gray-brown.
ovoid to narrowly ovoid, red-brown, 1–1.5(–2)cm, resinous.
ovoid, light red-brown, ca. 0.4–0.5cm, slightly resinous.
3 per fascicle (to 5 in adventitious or disturbed growth), spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, (12–)15–20(–21)cm × 1.3–1.5(–2)mm, slightly twisted, tufted at twig tips, straight, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex acuminate;
sheath 1–2cm, base persistent.
(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.
cylindric, to 30mm, yellow-brown.
ovoid, ca. 10mm, yellowish.
cones maturing in 2 years, in some populations beginning to shed seeds then but more often variably serotinous, long-persistent, often whorled, symmetric, ovoid to lanceoloid before opening, broadly ovoid to nearly globose when open, 5–8cm, pale red-brown to creamy brown, sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly thickened, low, rhombic, low cross-keeled;
umbo central, low-conic, with short, weak prickle, sometimes unarmed.
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.
=24.
Pinus serotina
Pinus quadrifolia
Pinus serotina is fire successional and sprouts adventitiously after crown fires. It is part of a distinct forest type including Taxodium distichum (Linnaeus) Richard, Nyssa biflora Walter, Magnolia virginiana Linnaeus, Persea sp., and Ilex sp. Of good form when protected from fire, P. serotina then much resembles P. taeda, with which it hybridizes naturally. It is of increasing importance as pulpwood.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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.)
MD Biodiversity
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database
CA
