Pinus virginiana
Pinus longaeva
Jersey pine, scrub pine, Virginia pine
bristlecone pine, Great Basin bristlecone pine, intermountain bristlecone pine
gray-brown with irregular, scaly-plated ridges, on upper sections of trunk reddish, scaly.
red-brown, shallowly to deeply fissured with thick, scaly, irregular, blocky ridges.
spreading-ascending to spreading-descending;
twigs slender, red- or purple-tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown to gray, rough.
contorted, pendent;
twigs pale red-brown, aging gray to yellow-gray, puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.
ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6–1cm, resinous or not resinous;
scale margins white-fringed.
ovoid-acuminate, pale red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous.
2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3–4 years, 2–8cm × 1–1.5mm, strongly twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex narrowly acute;
sheath 0.4–1cm, base persistent.
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.
ellipsoid-cylindric, 10–20mm, red-brown or yellow.
cylindro-ellipsoid, 7–10mm, purple-red.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 5 years, symmetric, lance-ovoid or lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3–7(–8)cm, dull red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales rigid, with strong purple-red or purple-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly thickened, slightly elongate;
umbo central, low-pyramidal, with slender, stiff prickle.
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 virginiana
Pinus longaeva
Pinus virginiana is weedy and fire successional and often forms large stands. It is mostly too small and too profusely branched to be valued except as pulpwood.
(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.)
MD Biodiversity
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
