Name

Pinus lambertiana D.Douglas, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 16: 500 (1827).
[Sugar pine]

Description

Habit: Very large tall tree 50-75 m high in its natural habitat. Trunk usually straight, columnar, free of branches for lower 30 m. Crown narrowly conic at first, becoming rounded, branches large, irregularly spaced, mostly horizontal or slightly drooping. Long drooping cones distinctive.

Bark: In young trees smooth and grey-green, Becoming thick and rough with age, greyish or reddish brown, divided into large, irregular-shaped, scaly plates.

Foliage: Needles in 5s, 5-10 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, bluish green to dark green, thick, stiff and usually twisted, tip sharply pointed, bases of terminal leaves cluttered with pale, papery sheaths, lines of stomata on all sides.

Branchlets: Slender, grey-green to red-brown, aging to grey, rather flexible, leaves mostly borne at ends, smooth young shoots with a covering of fine, pale, glandular hairs.

Winter buds: Small, 3-8 mm long, ovoid, pointed, with reddish-brown, tightly pressed, pointed scales, resinous.

Cones: Solitary or in 2s or 3s, erect at first, then pendulous, long stalk 8-9cm. Cone cylindrical, straight, tapering to a rounded tip, very long, 25-50-occasionally 60 cm long, 8-14 cm wide when open. Purplish when young, becoming yellowish brown to pale nut brown. Cone scales large and leathery with a rounded apex, scale ends somewhat thickened, slightly to not reflexed, very resinous, without a prickle.

Seeds: Large, 10-15 mm long, oval-oblong, dark brown to almost black with an opaque wing 20-30 mm long, firmly attached to the seed.

Notes

Distinguished from other 5-needled pines with deciduous leaf sheaths by the young shoots being minutely glandular hairy and by the shortish, sharp-pointed, rigid, twisted leaves. The very long cones with straight, wide scales are also distinctive.

Natural Distribution

NW Mexico, W U.S.A.