Colorado Pinyon
Encyclopedia
The Colorado Pinyon, Two-needle Pinyon, or Piñon Pine, ( Pinus edulis ), is a pine
in the pinyon pine
group whose ancestor was a member of the Madro-Tertiary Flora (a group of drought resistant trees) and is native to the United States
.
, southern Wyoming
, eastern and central Utah
, northern Arizona
, New Mexico
, and the Guadalupe Mountains
in westernmost Texas
. It occurs at moderate altitudes from 1600 metres (5,249.3 ft) to 2400 metres (7,874 ft), rarely as low as 1400 metres (4,593.2 ft) and as high as 3000 metres (9,842.5 ft). It is widespread and often abundant in this region, forming extensive open woodlands, usually mixed with juniper
s in the Pinyon-juniper woodland
plant community. The Colorado pinyon (piñon) grows as the dominant species on 4.8 million acres (19000 square kilometres (7,335.9 sq mi)) in Colorado, making up 22% of the state's forests. The Colorado pinyon has cultural meaning to agriculture, as strong piñon wood "plow heads" were used to break soil for crop planting at the state's earliest known agricultural settlements.
There is one known example of a Colorado Pinyon growing amongst Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) at nearly 3170 metres (10,400.3 ft) on Kendrick Peak
in the Kaibab National Forest of northern Arizona.
, reaching 10 metres (32.8 ft) - 20 metres (65.6 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 80 centimetres (31.5 in), rarely more. The bark is irregularly furrowed and scaly. The leaves
('needles') are in pairs, moderately stout, 3 centimetres (1.2 in) - 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in) 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 centimetres (1.2 in) to 5 centimetres (2 in) 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 centimetres (1.6 in) - 6 centimetres (2.4 in) broad when mature, holding the seed
s on the scales after opening. The seeds are 10 millimetre (0.393700787401575 in) to 14 millimetre (0.551181102362205 in) long, with a thin shell, a white endosperm
, and a vestigial 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) - 2 millimetre (0.078740157480315 in) wing; they are dispersed by the Pinyon Jay
, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new trees.
in 1848 from collections made near Santa Fe, New Mexico
on Alexander William Doniphan
's expedition to northern Mexico in 1846.
It is most closely related to the Single-leaf Pinyon
, which hybridises with it occasionally where their ranges meet in western Arizona and Utah. It is also closely related to the Texas Pinyon
, but is separated from it by a gap of about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) so does not hybridise with it.
An isolated population of trees in the New York Mountains
of southeast California
, previously thought to be Colorado Pinyons, have recently been shown to be a two-needled variant of Single-leaf Pinyon from chemical and genetic evidence. Occasional two-needled pinyons in northern Baja California
, Mexico
have sometimes been referred to Colorado Pinyon in the past, but are now known to be hybrids between Single-leaf Pinyon and Parry Pinyon
.
s, are extensively collected throughout its range; in many areas, the seed harvest rights are owned by Native American
tribes, for whom the species is of immense cultural and economic importance. One early legend asserts that the “tree of life” is a pinyon pine, rooted in ancient cultural sites found within areas of Pinyon (Piñon) Canyon, Colorado.
The habitat destruction
by deforestation
of large areas of pinyon forests in the interests of cattle
ranching, for habitat conversion to grazing
rangeland
, is seen by many as an act of major ecological and cultural vandalism.
Colorado Pinyon is also occasionally planted as an ornamental tree and sometimes used as a Christmas tree
. One historical use relates that the burning wood of the pinyon pine is the ancient fuel source of the eternal flame. It is the scent of "Piñon Pine incense
."
The Piñon Pine (Pinus edulis) is the State tree of New Mexico
.
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
in the pinyon pine
Pinyon pine
The pinyon pine group grows in the southwestern United States and in Mexico. The trees yield edible pinyon nuts, which were a staple of the Native Americans, and are still widely eaten...
group whose ancestor was a member of the Madro-Tertiary Flora (a group of drought resistant trees) and is native to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Distribution and habitat
The range is in ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, southern Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, eastern and central Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, northern Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, and the Guadalupe Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in the Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas and contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas at in elevation. It also contains El Capitan, long used as a landmark by people traveling along the old route later followed by the Butterfield Overland...
in westernmost Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It occurs at moderate altitudes from 1600 metres (5,249.3 ft) to 2400 metres (7,874 ft), rarely as low as 1400 metres (4,593.2 ft) and as high as 3000 metres (9,842.5 ft). It is widespread and often abundant in this region, forming extensive open woodlands, usually mixed with juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
s in the Pinyon-juniper woodland
Pinyon-juniper woodland
A Pinyon-juniper woodland is a forest type characteristic of many parts the Western United States, often in higher elevations of desert ecoregions.-Locations:...
plant community. The Colorado pinyon (piñon) grows as the dominant species on 4.8 million acres (19000 square kilometres (7,335.9 sq mi)) in Colorado, making up 22% of the state's forests. The Colorado pinyon has cultural meaning to agriculture, as strong piñon wood "plow heads" were used to break soil for crop planting at the state's earliest known agricultural settlements.
There is one known example of a Colorado Pinyon growing amongst Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis) at nearly 3170 metres (10,400.3 ft) on Kendrick Peak
Kendrick Peak
Kendrick Peak or Kendrick Mountain is one of the highest peaks in the San Francisco volcanic field north of the city of Flagstaff in the U.S...
in the Kaibab National Forest of northern Arizona.
Description
The Piñon Pine (Pinus edulis) is a small to medium size treeTree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
, reaching 10 metres (32.8 ft) - 20 metres (65.6 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 80 centimetres (31.5 in), rarely more. The bark is irregularly furrowed and scaly. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
('needles') are in pairs, moderately stout, 3 centimetres (1.2 in) - 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in) long, and green, with stomata on both inner and outer surfaces but distinctly more on the inner surface forming a whitish band.
The cones
Conifer cone
A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...
are globose, 3 centimetres (1.2 in) to 5 centimetres (2 in) 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 centimetres (1.6 in) - 6 centimetres (2.4 in) broad when mature, holding the seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s on the scales after opening. The seeds are 10 millimetre (0.393700787401575 in) to 14 millimetre (0.551181102362205 in) long, with a thin shell, a white endosperm
Endosperm
Endosperm is the tissue produced inside the seeds of most flowering plants around the time of fertilization. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and protein. This makes endosperm an important source of nutrition in human diet...
, and a vestigial 1 millimetre (0.0393700787401575 in) - 2 millimetre (0.078740157480315 in) wing; they are dispersed by the Pinyon Jay
Pinyon Jay
The Pinyon Jay is a jay between the North American Blue Jay and the Eurasian Jay in size. It is the only member of the genus Gymnorhinus, . Its overall proportions are very Nutcracker-like and indeed this can be seen as convergent evolution as both birds fill similar ecological niches...
, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new trees.
History
Colorado Pinyon was described by George EngelmannGeorge Engelmann
George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly-known; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico.-Origins:George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt...
in 1848 from collections made near Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
on Alexander William Doniphan
Alexander William Doniphan
Alexander William Doniphan was a 19th-century American attorney, soldier and politician from Missouri who is best known today as the man who prevented the summary execution of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr. at the close of the 1838 Mormon War in that state...
's expedition to northern Mexico in 1846.
It is most closely related to the Single-leaf Pinyon
Single-leaf Pinyon
The Single-leaf Pinyon, ', is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to the United States and northwest Mexico. The range is in southernmost Idaho, western Utah, Arizona, southwest New Mexico, Nevada, eastern and southern California and northern Baja California.It occurs at moderate altitudes from...
, which hybridises with it occasionally where their ranges meet in western Arizona and Utah. It is also closely related to the Texas Pinyon
Texas Pinyon
Pinus remota, commonly known as the Texas Pinyon or Papershell Pinyon, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America.-Range:...
, but is separated from it by a gap of about 100 kilometres (62.1 mi) so does not hybridise with it.
An isolated population of trees in the New York Mountains
New York Mountains
The New York Mountains are found in northeastern San Bernardino County in California, USA; the range's northeast lies in southeast Nevada. The range lies just south of the small community of Ivanpah, and north of the Lanfair Valley. The mountains are part of the mountain ranges, cones, mountains,...
of southeast California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, previously thought to be Colorado Pinyons, have recently been shown to be a two-needled variant of Single-leaf Pinyon from chemical and genetic evidence. Occasional two-needled pinyons in northern Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
have sometimes been referred to Colorado Pinyon in the past, but are now known to be hybrids between Single-leaf Pinyon and Parry Pinyon
Parry Pinyon
Pinus quadrifolia, the Parry Pinyon, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to southernmost California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico, from 33° 30' N south to 30° 30' N. It occurs at moderate altitudes from to , rarely as low as and as high as...
.
Uses
The edible seeds, pine nutPine nut
Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines . About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food....
s, are extensively collected throughout its range; in many areas, the seed harvest rights are owned by Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes, for whom the species is of immense cultural and economic importance. One early legend asserts that the “tree of life” is a pinyon pine, rooted in ancient cultural sites found within areas of Pinyon (Piñon) Canyon, Colorado.
The habitat destruction
Habitat destruction
Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity mainly for the purpose of...
by deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
of large areas of pinyon forests in the interests of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
ranching, for habitat conversion to grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
rangeland
Rangeland
Rangelands are vast natural landscapes in the form of grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras...
, is seen by many as an act of major ecological and cultural vandalism.
Colorado Pinyon is also occasionally planted as an ornamental tree and sometimes used as a Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
. One historical use relates that the burning wood of the pinyon pine is the ancient fuel source of the eternal flame. It is the scent of "Piñon Pine incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
."
The Piñon Pine (Pinus edulis) is the State tree of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
See also
- Pinyon pinePinyon pineThe pinyon pine group grows in the southwestern United States and in Mexico. The trees yield edible pinyon nuts, which were a staple of the Native Americans, and are still widely eaten...
s - Pinyon-juniper woodlandPinyon-juniper woodlandA Pinyon-juniper woodland is a forest type characteristic of many parts the Western United States, often in higher elevations of desert ecoregions.-Locations:...
- Habitat fragmentationHabitat fragmentationHabitat fragmentation as the name implies, describes the emergence of discontinuities in an organism's preferred environment , causing population fragmentation...
Sources
- Ronald M. Lanner, 1981. The Piñon Pine: A Natural and Cultural History. University of Nevada Press. ISBN 0-87417-066-4.
- Gymnosperm Database: Pinus edulis