Bishop Pine
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| Bishop Pine Conservation status: Secure | ||||||||||||||||
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The Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata) is a pine with a very restricted range: mostly California, USA, including some offshore islands, and a few locations in Baja California, Mexico, and always on or near the coast, from Trinidad Head in Humboldt County, California south to San Vicente in Baja California. The mature trees grow to a height of 15-25 m, rarely up to 34 m, with a trunk diameter of up to 1.2 m. They are often smaller, stunted and twisted in coastal exposure. It is drought tolerant and grows on dry, rocky soil.
The needles are in pairs, green to blue-green, and 8-16 cm long. The cones are strongly reflexed down the branch, 5-10 cm long; the scales are stiff, thin on the side of the cone facing the stem, but greatly thickened on the side facing away and with a stout 5-12 mm spine; both features adaptive to minimise squirrel predation and fire damage to the cones. The cones remain unopened for many years until fire or strong heat causes them to open and release the seeds.
There are two forms, a southern form with bright green needles, and a northern form with dark blue-green needles; the resin composition also differs. The dividing line between the two is very sharp, 8 km south of the boundary between Mendocino County and Sonoma County in California. Experimental attempts to hybridise the two forms have consistently failed, indicating that their taxonomic relationship may be more distant than the very small differences in appearance would suggest.
The common name Bishop Pine resulted from the tree having been first identified near the Mission of San Luis Obispo. This tree has a large number of common names and other prior scientific names, due primarily to numerous variant forms. Other English names that have occasionally been used are: Obispo Pine, Santa Cruz Pine, Dwarf Marine Pine, and Pricklecone Pine.
Bishop Pine is an endangered species in Mexico.
Cultivation and uses
The performance of this tree in plantations with better soil than it usually grows on in the wild is good, and shows high growth rates. It is naturalised in New Zealand.