Description of Pinyon Pines
(from Manual of the Trees of North America © 1965)
Leaves in 2 or rarely 3-leaved cluster, stout, semierete or triangular,
rigid, incurved, dark-green, marked by numerous rows of stomata,
3/4" - 1 1/2" (2 - 4 cm) long, decidious during the third
or not until the fourth or fifth year, dropping irregulary and sometimes
persistent for eight or nine years.
A tree often 40" - 50" (100 - 125 cm)
high with a tall trunk occasionally 2" (5cm) in diameter and
short erect branches forming a narrow head, or frequently with a
short divided trunk and a low round-topped head of spreading branches,
and thick branchlets orange color during their first and second
years, finally becoming light gray or bark brown sometimes tinged
with red.
Bark:
1/2" - 3/4" (1 - 2 cm) thick and irregulary divided
into connected ridges covered by small closely appressed light brown
scales tinged with red or orange color.
Wood:
Light, soft, not strong, brittle, pale brown; largely employed
for fuel and fencing, and as charcoal used in smelting; in western
Texas occasionally sawed into lumber. The seeds form and important
article of food among Native Americans and Mexicans, and are sold
in the markets of Colorado and New Mexico.
Distribution:
Eastern foothills of the outer ranges of the Rocky Mountains,
from northern Colorado (Owl Canyon, Larimer County); to the extreme
western part of Oklahoma (near Kenton, Cimmaron County, G.W. Stevens)
and to western Texas, westward to eastern Utah, southwestern Wyoming,
and to northern and central Arizona; over the mountains of northern
Mexico, and on the San Pedro Mártir Mountains, Lower California;
often forming extensive open forests at the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains, on the Colorado Plateau, and on many mountain ranges
of northern and central Arizona up to elevations of 7000' (2100m)
above the sea.
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