Pinus coulteri
Common name: 
Coulter Pine
Bigcone Pine
Pronunciation: 
PI-nus kol-TER-ee-eye
Family: 
Pinaceae
Genus: 
Type: 
Conifer
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Evergreen conifer with a height range of 33-79 ft (10-24 m), open growth with wide spreading lower branches.  Trunk vertical and branches horizontal to up curved.  Buds resinous. Needles (leaves) 3 per bundle, slightly spreading, not drooping, 15-30 cm long and only 2 mm wide, dusty gray-green, all surfaces with pale, fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate. Pollen cones ovoid to cylindric, to 25 mm, light purple-brown, aging orange-brown.  Seed cones mature in 2 years, massive, heavy (one of the heaviest of any pine), drooping, ovoid-cylindric when open, 20-35 cm long, pale yellow-brown, resinous.
  • Sun, resistant to heat, wind and drought.  Good in the high desert. Cones are heavy and potentially dangerous.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone  8    Native range extends from the California's Central Coast, east of San Francisco, down to the South Coast and just into Baja California.
  • coulteri: after the tree's discover (1831), Thomas Coulter (1793–1843), an Irish physician, botanist and explorer.
Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • branch, needles

    branch, needles

  • needles and cone

    needles and cone

  • needle bundle

    needle bundle

  • trunk, bark

    trunk, bark