Pinus strobiformis
Pinus longaeva
Chihuahua white pine, Mexican white pine, pino enano, Southwestern white pine
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine
gray, aging red-brown, furrowed, with narrow, irregular, scaly ridges.
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges.
spreading-ascending;
twigs slender, pale red-brown, puberulous or glabrous, sometimes glaucous, aging gray or gray-brown, smooth.
contorted, pendent;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
ellipsoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
5 per fascicle, spreading to ascending-upcurved, persisting 3–5 years, 4–9cm × 0.6–1mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, dark green to blue-green, abaxial surface without evident stomatal lines, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by narrow stomatal lines, margins sharp, razorlike and entire to finely serrulate, apex narrowly acute to short-subulate;
sheath 1.5–2cm, shed early.
mostly 5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–30 years, 1.5–3.5cm × 0.8–1.2mm, mostly connivent, deep yellow-green, with few resin splotches but often scurfy with pale scales, abaxial surface without median groove but with 2 subepidermal but evident resin bands, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened with stomates, margins entire or remotely and finely serrulate distally, apex bluntly acute to short-acuminate;
sheath ca. 1cm, soon forming rosette, shed early.
cylindric, ca. 6–10mm, pale yellow-brown.
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, pendent, symmetric, lance-cylindric before opening, broadly lance-cylindric when open, 15–25cm, creamy brown to light yellow-brown, stalks to 6cm;
apophyses somewhat thickened, strongly cross-keeled, tip reflexed;
umbo terminal, low.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric with rounded base before opening, lance-cylindric to narrowly ovoid when open, 6–9.5cm, purple, aging red-brown, nearly sessile;
apophyses much thickened, sharply keeled;
umbo central, raised on low buttress, truncate to umbilicate, abruptly narrowed to slender but stiff, variable prickle 1–6mm, resin exudate pale.
=24.
Pinus strobiformis
Pinus longaeva
In the northern part of the range, Pinus strobiformis overlaps P. flexilis and reportedly hybridizes with it. On average P. strobiformis has longer, more slender leaves and thinner, more spreading-tipped apophyses than are found in P. flexilis, and stomatal bands are not evident on the abaxial surface of its leaves.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Pinus longaeva is considered by dendrochronologists to be the longest-lived tree. One tree was estimated to be 5000 years old.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
