Broadly conical tree 20-30 m tall. Bark grey, smooth, brown and fissured on old trees. Buds 6-7 mm long with chaffy scales, resinous. Young shoots greyish, covered with rusty down. Leaves in 5's, mostly 11-18 cm long, slender, glossy, single white lines on inner faces; sheath deciduous. Cones mostly 20-35 cm long, 7-11 cm wide, gradually tapered, generally slightly curved, soon shed; scales thin and resinous, those in the lower half of the cone often bent back at the tip. Seeds 7-8 mm long with a long wing.
Rare in cultivation but sometimes offered in the nursery trade for its ornamental slender leaves.
Mexican White Pine Mexico, Guatemala
Reflexed scales at base of cone. Pinus strobiformis Engelm., is occasionally offered in nurseries; it differs in having stouter cones with thick, woody, inflexible scales and large seeds 12-14 mm long with a short wing, sometimes mis-labelled as P. ayacahuite. Pinus flexilis E. James, Limber Pine from the American Rocky Mts in arid rocky areas at alt. 1400-3600 m is occasionally available; it has leaves about 5-8 cm long, curved or slightly twisted and differing from other 5-leaved species in being devoid of minute serrations (it is smooth when stroked tip to base) and in having ovoid-conic cones 7-14 cm long with blunt-tipped scales.
ACT: ANU Forestry Dept. (lawn tree ptd 1968).
Source: (1995). Pinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
