Pinus radiata

Common names

Monterey pine, insignis pine (Little 1980), radiata pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus tuberculata D. Don; P. insignis Douglas ex Loudon (Kral 1993, Millar 1986).

It hybridizes naturally with P. attenuata (P. × attenuradiata Stockwell & Righter; note that this name is was applied to an experimental hybrid specimen).

One variety, binata (Engelmann) Lemmon, the Guadalupe Island pine (= P. insignis var. binata Engelmann; P. muricata var. cedrosensis Howell; P. radiata var. cedrosensis (Howell) Silba) (Perry 1991).

Description

Trees 15-30 m tall, 30-90 cm in diameter, contorted to straight; crown broadly conic, becoming rounded to flattened. Bark gray to reddish-brown, deeply V-furrowed, furrow bases red, ridges irregularly elongate-rectangular, their flattened surfaces scaly. Branches level to downcurved or ascending, poorly self-pruning; twigs slender, red-brown, sometimes glaucous, aging gray, rough. Buds ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, red-brown, ca. 1.5 cm, resinous. Needles 2 (var. binata) or 3 (type variety) per fascicle, spreading-ascending, persisting 3-4 years, (8)9-15(20) cm × 1.3-1.8(2) mm, straight, slightly twisted, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex conic-subulate; sheath (1)1.5-2 cm, base persistent. Pollen cones ellipsoid-cylindric, 10-15 mm, orange-brown. Seed cones maturing in February, 2 years after pollination, mostly serotinous and persistent 6-20(-40) years, numerous, solitary to whorled, spreading to recurved, curved, mostly asymmetric (usually symmetric in var. binata and occasionally so in var. radiata), ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid when open, 7-15 cm, yellow-brown, lustrous, scales rigid, stalks to 1cm; apophyses toward outer cone base mostly increasingly mammillate (but not in var. binata), those on inward cone side and middle and apex of cone more level; umbo central, mostly depressed, with small central boss or occasionally with slender, deciduous prickle. Seeds compressed-ellipsoid; body ca. 6 mm, dark brown; wing 20-30 mm. 2n=24 (Little 1980, Kral 1993, M.P. Frankis e-mail 1999.03.05).