''Pinus orizabensis'', the Orizaba pinyon, is a

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

in the

pinyon pine The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in southwestern North America, especially in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The trees yield edible nuts, which are a staple food of Native Americans, and widely eaten as a snack and as an ingredient in New ...

group,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to central

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is considered also as a sub-species of ''

Pinus cembroides ''Pinus cembroides'', also known as pinyon pine, Mexican pinyon, Mexican nut pine, and Mexican stone pine, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to western North America. It grows in areas with low levels of rainfall and its range extends so ...

'' which is classified as ''Pinus cembroides'' subsp. ''orizabensis'' D.K.Bailey. It has larger seeds than the type. The range is localised, confined to a small area in the eastern Eje Volcánico Transversal range (Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt), in the states of

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

and

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

. It occurs at high altitudes, mostly from , in a cooler, moister climate than the other pinyon pines.

Description

It is a small to medium-size

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

, reaching tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 50 cm. The bark is dark brown, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

('needles') are in mixed fascicles of three and four, slender, 3–6 cm long, and deep green to blue-green, with

stomata In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

confined to a bright white band on the inner surfaces.

Cones

The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are globose to ovoid, 4–7 cm long and 3–5 cm broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-brown when 16–18 months old, with only a small number of thin scales, typically 6-18 fertile scales. The cones open to 5–7 cm broad when mature, holding the

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s on the scales after opening. The seeds are 12–15 mm long, with a thick shell, a pink

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo and ...

, and a vestigial 2 mm wing; they are dispersed by the

Mexican jay The Mexican jay (''Aphelocoma wollweberi'') Etymology: ''Aphelocoma'', from Latinized Ancient Greek ''apheles-'' (from ἀφελής-) "simple" + Latin ''coma'' (from Greek ''kome'' κόμη) "hair", in reference to the lack of striped or banded ...

, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a major 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

''Pinus orizabensis'' is the most recent

to be described, discovered by Dana K. Bailey in 1983 when examining an unusual pinyon cultivated at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

; it was found to match wild specimens from the

Pico de Orizaba Pico de Orizaba, also known as Citlaltépetl (from Nahuatl = star, and = mountain), is an inactive stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America, after Denali of Alaska in the United States and Mount Loga ...

. At first it was described as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

Mexican pinyon ''Pinus cembroides'', also known as pinyon pine, Mexican pinyon, Mexican nut pine, and Mexican stone pine, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to western North America. It grows in areas with low levels of rainfall and its range extends so ...

, but further research by Bailey & Hawksworth and others has shown that it is better treated as a distinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. Some botanists still include it in Mexican pinyon though, despite their occurring together in some sites without evidence of hybridisation. Orizaba pinyon shows better adaptation to rainy temperate climate like

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

than ''Pinus cembroides'' which grows in dryer habitats. ''Pinus orizabensis'' is most closely allied to

Johann's pinyon ''Pinus johannis'', the Johann's pine, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to North America. The range extends from southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico, United States, south in Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sie ...

and

Potosi pinyon ''Pinus culminicola'', commonly known as Potosí pinyon or Potosí Piñón, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native and endemism, endemic to northeast Mexico. The range is highly localised, confined to a small area of high summits in the north ...

, with which it shares the leaf structure with the stomata confined to the inner faces; it differs from these in the larger cones and seeds, and from the latter in fewer needles per fascicle (3-4 vs 5). Like these two, the white-glaucous inner surfaces of the needles make it a very attractive small tree, suitable for

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s and large

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s. The edible (

pine nut Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

) seeds are collected in Mexico to a small extent.

References

Photo of cones (''scroll half-way down'')
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3308263 orizabensis Endemic flora of Mexico Trees of Puebla Trees of Veracruz Trees of Central Mexico Flora of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Edible nuts and seeds Bird food plants Trees of mild maritime climate Near threatened plants Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN