VI. BALFOURIANAE
Seeds with long effective wings. Leaves entire, in fascicles of 5, the sheath deciduous.
The two species known as Foxtail Pines are alike in their short entire falcate leaves, persisting for many years and forming long dense foliage-masses. They differ in the armature of their cones and in their seed-wings. The presence of both adnate and articulate wings in these closely related species suggests that these two forms of wing are not fundamentally distinct.
| Cone-scales short-mucronate, the seed-wing adnate | 18. Balfouriana. |
| Cone-scales long-aristate, the seed-wing articulate | 19. aristata. |
18. PINUS BALFOURIANA
- 1853 P. Balfouriana Balfour in Bot. Exp. Oregon, 1, f.
Spring-shoots somewhat puberulent. Leaves from 2 to 4 cm. long, persistent for many years; stomata ventral only; resin-ducts external. Scales of the conelet short-mucronate. Cones from 7 to 12 cm. long, tapering to a rounded apex, short-pedunculate; apophyses dark terracotta-brown, tumid, the umbo bearing a short recumbent prickle; seed with a long adnate wing.
An alpine species growing often at the timber-limit. It is found in two distinct stations in California, on the northern Coast Range and on the southern Sierras. It is not often cultivated, but young plants may be seen in the Arnold Arboretum and in the Royal Gardens at Kew.