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Nevada Symbols, Tree: Singleleaf Pinyon
Singleleaf Pinyon
(Pinaceae Pinus monophylla )
Adopted in 1959.
The pinon pine was the first tree adopted as a symbol by our state. The Single-Leaf Pinon (Pinus monophylla) is an aromatic pine tree with short, stiff needles and gnarled branches.
NRS 235.040 State trees. The trees known as the single-leaf pinon (Pinus monophylla) and the bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) are hereby designated as the official state trees of the State of Nevada.
[1:72:1953]—(NRS A 1959, 107; 1987, 785; 1997, 1604)
The Single-Leaf Pinon (Pinus monophylla) is an aromatic pine tree with short, stiff needles and gnarled branches. The tree grows in coarse, rocky soils and rock crevices. Though its normal height is about 15 feet, the single-leaf pinon can grow as high as 50 feet under ideal conditions
Singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), also called pinyon, nut pine, one-leaf pine, and piñon (Spanish), is a slow-growing, low, spreading tree that grows on dry, low mountain slopes of the Great Basin. One large tree near Reno, NV, is about 112 cm (44.2 in) in d.b.h., 16.2 m (53 ft) tall, and has a crown spread of about 20 m (66 ft). Principal uses of the tree include fuel, fenceposts, Christmas trees, and edible seeds
Bark: is in old trees, thick, scaly, divided by longitudinal and horizontal furrows; in young trees thin and smooth.
Branchlets: light gray, rough, pubescent; bases of the leaf bracts are not decurrent.
Leaves: in fascicles of 5, rarely 4, slightly curved, 1.5-4.0 cm long, 0.5-1.5 mm thick; margins entire, stomata primarily on the ventral surfaces with an occasional row on the dorsal surface; resin canals 2, rarely 1 or 3, dorsal; fibrovascular bundle single; the leaves bright green on the dorsal surface and silver-colored (lines of stomata) on the ventral surfaces; connate (united) during the first year. Sheaths of the leaves 5-9 mm long, curled into persistent rosettes, later deciduous.
Conelets: borne singly and in pairs on slender, short peduncles; globose with thick, transversely keeled scales.
Cones: subglobose; symmetrical; 3.5-5.0 cm long, 4.5-7.0 cm wide when open; yellow to ochre colored; dehiscent; deciduous when mature, the peduncle very small and falling with the cone.
Cone scales: few; the apophysis rhomboidal, transversely keeled; the umbo dorsal, flat to depressed, bearing a minute early deciduous prickle. Only the central scales are seed-bearing.
Seeds: brown; wingless; 14-17 mm long, 6-8 mm wide; the seed coat very thin, 0.2-0.3 mm thick; the endosperm white"
Form: "A small pine up to 15 m tall. In mature trees the crown is irregularly rounded; in young trees it is thicker and narrowly pyramidal.
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| Kingdom |
Plantae -- Plants |
| Subkingdom |
Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants |
| Superdivision |
Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
| Division |
Coniferophyta – Conifers |
| Class |
Pinopsida – |
| Order |
Pinales – |
| Family |
Pinaceae – Pine family |
| Genus |
Genus Pinus L. – pine |
| Species |
Pinus monophylla Torr. & Frém. – singleleaf pinyon |
Source:
Dendrology at Virginia Tech
Gymnosperm Database
U.S. Department of Agriculture
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