Pinon Tree |
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The Two-needle Pinon (Pinus edulis) is a pine in the pinon pine group, native to the United States. Although it ranges includes southern Colorado, eastern and central Utah, northern Arizona, the unhbridized tree that produces the most sought after pinon nut is primariliy found New Mexico. It occurs at moderate altitudes from 1600-2400 m, rarely as low as 1400 m and as high as 3000 m. It is widespread and often abundant in this region, forming extensive open woodlands, usually mixed with junipers. |
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Pinus edulis (Pinyon Pine) and Sabina osteosperma(Utah Juniper) dominate hundreds of thousands of acres of western Colorado, central and western New Mexico, northeastern Arizona, and central and eastern Utah. |
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It is a small to medium size tree, reaching 10-20 ft. tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 80 cm, rarely more. The bark is dark, irregularly furrowed and scaly. The leaves ('needles') are in pairs, moderately stout, 3-5.5 cm long, and green, with stomata on both inner and outer surfaces but distinctly more on the inner surface forming a whitish band. The cones are globose, 3-5 cm long and broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-buff when 18-20 months old, with only a small number of thick scales, with typically 5-10 fertile scales. The cones open to 4-6 cm broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening. |
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The seeds of Pinyon and Juniper nourish most wildlife in these forests and beginning 2,000 years ago the Anasazi created a civilization with these trees: they built homes and fed, clothed, and warmed themselves with Pinyon Pine and Utah Juniper. And they must have, as we still do today, found the redolence of a Juniper and Pinyon Pine fire to be one of the grand pleasures of life. |
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Today Native Americans of the Southwest and gourmet cooks around the world still prize Pinyon Pine nuts for snacking and cooking. The rot resistant wood of the Juniper is used extensively for fence posts and its seeds are strung on necklaces as "Ghost Beads" by the Navajo. |
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Pinus edulis", now the state tree of New Mexico, was first collected by Friedrich Wislizenus in the Sangre de Cristo Range of New Mexico and was first described by George Engelmann in Wislizenus' 1848 Tour through Northern Mexico . |
"Pinus edulis" is Latin for "edible pine". |
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