Pinus edulis
Common name: 
Pinyon Pine
Piñón Pine
Two-needle Pinyon
Colorado Pinyon
Pronunciation: 
PI-nus ED-yew-lee
Family: 
Pinaceae
Genus: 
Type: 
Conifer
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Conifer, evergreen tree, to about 45 ft (14 m) tall, often a short, crooked trunk and a low rounded head of spreading branches; slow growing.  Bark gray or reddish brown, rough, furrowed into scaly ridges.  Leaves (needles) 6-11 cm long, two per bundle (rarely 3), stout, yellow-green to blue-green, marked with numerous rows of stomata.  Cones 4-5 cm long, borne singly or in groups of 2-4, mature in 2 years, egg-shaped, yellow brown, resinous or sticky, cone-scale thick, blunt, seeds large (10-15 mm), wingless, edible, 10-20 per cone.
  • Sun
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 3      Native range covers the Southern Rocky Mountains from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, also found in southwest Wyoming and eastern Nevada, extreme northwest Oklahoma, Tran-Pecos Texas, and southeastern California and northern Mexico.  The most common tree on the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.
  • The State Tree of New Mexico
  • edulis: Latin, edible, the seeds
  • The seeds ("pine nuts") are harvested in autumn (generally September through October) by local residents if they can get to them before they are consumed by pinyon jays, turkeys, woodrats, bears, deer and other wildlife.  P. edulis is the main pinyon pine in the southwestern U.S., two other important pinyon pines (pines with edible, nut-like seeds) are the Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and the Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides).
  • Silverton, Oregon: The Oregon Garden - Conifer Garden.
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  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • needles

    needles

  • cone and needles

    cone and needles

  • spent cones

    spent cones

  • trunk, bark

    trunk, bark