LIMBER PINE 



Pinus flexilis JAMES. 



BARK Thin, narrowly fissured into dark brown blocks, 

 scales when falling expose a reddish inner layer; 

 on younger stems it is thinner and almost white. 



LEAVES In 5's, dark green, stout and stiff, sharp- 



rinted, crowded at ends of branches, persisting 

 to 8 years. 



CONE Long, oval, 3 to 5 inches long, thickened ends 

 of scales terminating in a stout, incurved tip, 

 wing of seed very narrow. 



In companionship with the Murray 

 Pine, Pinus flexilis climbs the dry, 

 rocky and exposed slopes of the higher 

 ranges.* In the rocky, talus-cluttered 

 gulches near the summits of San Gor- 

 gonio and San Jacinto Peaks, where 

 some protection is offered from the high 

 winds, the trees grow quite straight and 

 tall. But the most interesting and beau- 

 tiful forms are those of the exposed 

 ridges, where gnarled, twisted and pros- 



*It seems probable that the Limber pine whose home 

 is in the Rocky Mountains has entered Southern Cali- 

 fornia by way of the desert ranges, the highest peaks 

 of which served as stepping stones between the Rocky 

 Mountains and the higher ranges of middle and 

 Southern California. HALL. Found also on Santa 

 Rosa Peak, 25 miles southeast of San Jacinto Peak. 



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