Pinus sylvestris |
Pinus sabiniana |
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pin d'écosse, Scotch pine, Scots pine |
California foothill pine, digger pine, foothill pine, ghost, gray, gray pine, or foothill pine |
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Habit | Trees to 25m; trunk to 1.2m diam., straight to crooked, often forked; crown conic to raggedly lobed, sparse. | |
Bark | dark brown to near black, irregularly and deeply furrowed, ridges irregularly rectangular or blocky, scaly, often breaking away, bases of furrows and underbark orangish. |
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Branches | often ascending; cone-bearing branchlets stout, twigs comparatively slender, both pale purple-brown and glaucous, aging gray, rough. |
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Buds | ovoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous; scale margins white-fringed. |
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Leaves | 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. |
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Pollen cones | ellipsoid, 10–15mm, yellow. |
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Seed(s) | 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. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Pinus sylvestris |
Pinus sabiniana |
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Habitat | Dry foothills on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and in the coast ranges, nearly ringing the Central Valley of California | |
Elevation | 30–1900m (100–6200ft) | |
Distribution |
North America; Eurasia
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CA
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Discussion | Varieties ca. 20 (1 introduced in the flora). (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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 2. | FNA vol. 2. |
Parent taxa | Pinaceae > Pinus | Pinaceae > Pinus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1000. (1753) | Douglas ex D. Don: in Lambert, Descr. Pinus [ed. 3] 2: unnumbered page between 144 and 145, plate 80. (1832) |
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