  Cone about 5 cm long on a tree a Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona [C.J. Earle, 1989]. | Pinus leiophylla var. chihuahuana (Engelmann) Shaw 1909Common NamesChihuahua pine, ocote blanco, ocote chino, pino real (1).Taxonomic notesSyn: Pinus chihuahuana Engelmann 1848; P. leiophylla subsp. chihuahuana Murray 1982 (5).Description"Trees to 25 m; trunk to 0.9 m diam., slender; crown conic, becoming rounded. Bark brown to red-brown, narrowly furrowed, cross-checked into long, irregularly and narrowly rectangular, flat, scaly ridges. Branches ascending; twigs slender, orange-brown or glaucous and violet, aging red-brown, ±smooth or cracking. Buds ovoid, light red-brown, ca. 0.6-0.7(1) cm, slightly resinous. Leaves (2)3(4) per fascicle, spreading-ascending, persisting 2 years, 6-15 cm x 0.8-1 mm, straight to slightly twisted, dull gray-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex acute to acuminate; sheath to 1.5 cm, shed early and completely. Pollen cones broadly ellipsoid, ca. 10-15 mm, brown or yellow. Seed cones maturing in 3 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter but long-persistent, paired or solitary, symmetric, lateral, narrowly ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid to nearly globose when open, 3.5-5(9) cm, chestnut brown or greenish brown, aging gray to gray-brown, stalks to 1.5 cm; apophyses slightly thickened and raised, not keeled; umbo central, slightly raised or depressed, with short, often deciduous prickle or unarmed. Seeds obovoid; body ca. 2 mm, gray, mottled darker; wing ca. 10 mm, dark-lined. 2n=24"It differs from variety leiophylla "in its dark, less roughened bark, its shorter range of leaf length, and its slightly broader leaves that occur more consistently in threes. (The narrower, often longer leaves of the type variety are in fours and fives.)" (3). RangeUSA: E central & SE Arizona, and SW New Mexico; Mexico at 1500 to 2500 m, usually on rocky ridges and mountain slopes with P. engelmannii and P. arizonica (2).Big TreeDiameter 90 cm, height 27 m, crown spread 10 m; also, diameter 88 cm, height 27 m, crown spread 11 m. Both found at Fort Apache Indian Reservation, AZ (4).OldestDendrochronologyEthnobotanyObservationsSeen and collected at Cochise Head and Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.RemarksOne of the few pines that can resprout from cut stumps (2, 3).Citations(1) Elmore & Janish 1976(2) Little 1980 (3) Robert Kral in Flora of North America online (4) American Forests 1996. (5) Farjon & Styles 1997. See also: |
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