40. PINUS TEOCOTE
- 1830 P. teocote Schlechtendal & Chamisso in Linnaea, v. 76.
Spring-shoots uninodal, or sometimes multinodal. Leaves prevalently in fascicles of 3, but varying from 3 to 5, from 10 to 20 cm. long; resin-ducts medial, sometimes with an internal duct, hypoderm biform, endoderm with thick outer walls. Conelets mucronate. Cones usually very small, from 4 to 6 cm. long, but with a larger varietal form, ovate to long-conic, symmetrical; apophyses nut-brown, flat or tumid, the mucro usually deciduous.
This species grows at temperate altitudes from Chiapas to Nuevo Leon, associated with temperate Mexican species such as P. patula, P. leiophylla and others, and is easily recognized by its small cone. The variety with a larger cone (var. macrocarpa, Shaw, Pines Mex. t. 10) I have found growing in mixed groves of P. teocote and P. leiophylla. It resembles the latter in cone and leaf, but lacks the peculiar character that distinguishes P. leiophylla from all other Mexican species—the triennial cone. Some of the specimens of Hartweg No. 441 belong here, as well as Pringle's specimens, Nos. 10013, 10018, distributed as P. eslavae, ined.
Fig. 235, Two cones of the species and the larger cone of the variety. Fig. 236, Leaf-fascicle and magnified sections of two leaves. Fig. 237 a, Dermal tissues of the leaf magnified; b, magnified cells of the leaf-endoderm. Fig. 238, Habit of the tree.