Colorado pinyon

The range is in Colorado, southern Wyoming, eastern and central Utah, northern Arizona, New Mexico, and the Guadalupe Mountains in westernmost Texas. It occurs at moderate altitudes from 1,600 metres to 2,400 metres , rarely as low as 1,400 metres and as high as 3,000 metres . It is widespread and often abundant in this region, forming extensive open woodlands, usually mixed with junipers in the Pinyon-juniper woodland plant community. The Colorado pinyon grows as the dominant species on 4.8 million acres ) 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.

Pinus edulis is sometimes described as occurring in the New York Mountains of extreme eastern California, but other authors assign these trees to Pinus monophylla. These trees have also been described as a species, Pinus californiarum D.K. Bailey. The name has not been widely accepted but I do not think it is yet clear whether it should be dropped into synonymy with Pinus edulis or with P. monophylla. On the Pinus monophylla page I discuss a possible hybrid origin for these trees. More

Pinyon ( Pinus edulis ) is the state tree of New Mexico. Common Names - Click on the language to view common names. More

that Pinus edulis "is said to fruit once in seven years". More