Pinus aristata

Bristlecone Pine, Colorado.

The Bristlecone Pine ( Pinus aristata ) is a flowering plant in the genus of pine (Pinus ) in the family (Pinaceae ). The formerly been regarded as a variety of Bristlecone Pine Bristlecone Pine was separated in 1971 as a separate species from Pinus longaeva.

Occurrence

The bristlecone pine is native to western North America in the mountains of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Their locations are dry granite and dolomite slopes at altitudes 2300-3500 meters. It forms there in sparse stands the tree line.

Description

The Bristlecone Pine is reached from 0.5 to 1 meter of an evergreen tree, the plant height 8-15 meters and trunk diameter. It is very slow; sometimes only 3 centimeters stonger on the circumference in 100 years. Since the closely related Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva ) was only in 1971 separated from the Bristlecone pine tree as a separate species, is found in the literature often the Note, the Bristlecone Pine 'm about 5000 years old and was therefore one of the longest-lived organisms on earth. After the separation of Pinus longaeva that meet these ages, however, the maximum age of the Bristlecone pine tree is "only" about 2500 years indicated.

The tree crown is narrow and dense with outstanding individual emerging, twisted branches. The Bristlecone pine tree has a gnarled, often twisted trunk with a gray to reddish-brown Schuppenborke. The resinous buds are 4 mm long and oval to pointed. The five noble short shoots are tight. The bark of the branches is densely hairy, at first pale reddish- brown and gray later. The needles of the Bristlecone pine tree are 2 to 4 inches long, have showy white resin spots and have a lifetime of 12 to 15 years. The needles suddenly end in a short mandrel tip. Grated needles remember the smell of turpentine.

The bristlecone pine is monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). The flowering period is from July to August. The male cones are about 10 mm long and bluish to red. The female cones are purple mat in the first year and only 2 cm tall; in the second year they are 5-9 cm long and 4 cm wide. Each stub Scale carries a projecting, about 6 mm long spine. The journals of the Bristlecone pine tree have showy white resin flakes. The mature cones contain 5 mm sized, gray -brown to almost black seeds with 1 cm long wings. The seeds ripen in September and October.

Demarcation with similar types

• The Foxtail pine has longer needles (3.5 to 4 cm ), which have a fine mandrel tip; it lacks the white resin stains completely. In addition, the crushed needles of foxtail pine give off a sweet aroma of resin.
• The Bristlecone Pine has also slightly longer needles; next she wears shorter spines on the cone scales. These pine species has no white resin spots on needles and pins.

Swell

• Description and taxonomy of the species at The Gymnosperm Database. (English)