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Pinus oocarpa



Pinus oocarpa
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Scientific name: Pinus oocarpa Schiede  1838

Synonyms:Pinus oocarpoides Lindl. ex Loudon

Common names:Egg-cone pine, Mexican yellow pine, Pino amarillo, Pino avellano (Spanish)

 

Description

Tree to 35(-55) m tall, with trunk to 0.7(-1.2) m in diameter. Bark dark grayish brown, thick, rough, with irregular, scaly ridges broken up into elongate plates by shallow furrows. Crown broadly dome-shaped, open, with irregularly forked, upraised branches densely clothed with foliage only at the  tips.  Twigs reddish brown, hairless, initially rough with the bases of scale leaves but these flaking off during or after the second season. Buds 12-25 mm long, not resinous. Needles in bundles of (three to) five, each needle (11-)17-25(-30) cm long, usually thick, stiff, and straight, lasting 2(-3) years, shiny light green to yellowish green. Individual needles with a few inconspicuous lines of stomates on all three faces, and four to eight resin canals surrounding the two-stranded midvein and usually touching both it and the outer needle surface. Sheath 18-27 mm long, persisting and falling with the bundle. Pollen cones 15-20 mm long, yellowish brown with a reddish blush. Seed cones 3-8(-10) cm long, very broadly egg-shaped to almost spherical when open, with 40-100(-130) seed scales, green before maturity, ripening light to dark yellowish brown, opening only gradually but ultimately very widely when ripe and remaining attached for several years before falling together with the long, slender, curved stalk (1-)1.5-3.5(-4.5) cm long. Seed scales very woody, irregularly rectangular, the exposed face roughly diamond-shaped to six-sided, fairly flat to strongly conically protruding and tipped by a modest umbo usually bearing a tiny, fragile prickle. Seed body 4-8 mm long, the clasping wing another (8-)12-18 mm longer, strongly thickened toward the seed body.

Mountains of Mesoamerica and western Mexico, from Matagalpa (Nicaragua) and Olancho (Honduras) to northeastern Hidalgo and southeastern Sonora (Mexico). Forming pure stands or mixed with other species in open, fire-prone pine-oak woodlands; (200-)1,200-2,000(-2-700) m.

 

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

(Despite the inferred decline due to levels of exploitation, the extent of occurrence and area of occupancy of this species are huge and it meets no criteria for any category of threat. It is therefore assessed as Least Concern)

 

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.

Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland

 

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.


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