Pinus oocarpa description

Tree, 12 m tall, about 10 km E of Uruapan, Michoacan [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Bark on the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Cone collected from the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Foliar unit collected from the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Sapling about 1.5 m tall near the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Seedling about 5 cm tall near the tree shown above [C.J. Earle, 13-Feb-2005].

Distribution of Pinus oocarpa (Critchfield and Little 1966).

Pinus oocarpa Schiede ex Schlectendahl 1838

Common Names

Taxonomic notes

Two varieties, oocarpa and trifoliata. Pinus tecunumanii has been placed in synonymy, but is now regarded as a distinct species (Farjon and Styles 1997). Other closely-related species include P. greggii, P. jaliscana, P. patula, P. praetermissa, and P. pringlei, all of which also are native to Mexico.

Pinus oocarpa var. oocarpa syns: Pinus oocarpoides Lindl. ex Loudon 1842, Pinus oocarpa var. oocarpoides (Lindl. ex Loudon) Endlicher 1847; Pinus oocarpa var. manzanoi Martínez 1940 (Farjon 1998).

Pinus oocarpa var. trifoliata Martínez 1948 syn: P. oocarpa forma trifoliata Martínez 1945 (Farjon 1998), P. luzmariae Pérez de la Rosa 1998. I haven't seen much on P. luzmariae; it was described in Spanish and doesn't seem to have been widely recognized. For the time being I'm keeping it as a synonym of P. oocarpa var. trifoliata.

Description

Range

Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and NW Nicaragua. See also Thompson et al. (1999). Trees reported from Belize (Critchfield and Little 1966, Perry 1991) are now assigned to P. tecunumanii (Farjon and Styles 1997). Var. oocarpa is native throughout the range described, while var. trifoliata is restricted to Honduras and Mexico: Durango, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Oaxaca (Farjon 1998, Conifer Specialist Group 1998).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

This species is a principal host for the dwarf mistletoe Arceuthobium aureum subsp. petersonii in Oaxaca and Chiapas, and is the sole host of A. hondurense in Honduras (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).

Citations

Conifer Specialist Group. 1998. Pinus luzmariae. http://www.iucnredlist.org (accessed 2006.11.21).

Pérez de la Rosa, J.A. 1998. Promoción de una variedad de pino serotino mexicano a nivel de especie. Bol. Inst. Bot. Univ. Guadalajara 5: 127-135.