EVERGREENS OF COLORADO 



to which the seeds are attached. When the seeds reach the ground and 

 become wet with dew or rain, the wings readily separate from them and 

 leave them to germinate quietly as conditions may favor. Five species 

 of pines are native to the foothills and mountains of Colorado. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OP PINUS IN COLORADO 



I. Needles, five in a bundle. 



A. Scales of the cones tipped with curved prickles. 



1. Pinus aristata. 



B. Scales of the cones without prickles. 



2. Pinus flcxilis. 



II. Needles, two or three in a bundle. 



A. Needles two and three in a bundle, 3 to 6 inches long. 



3. Pinus ponderosa scopulorum. 



B. Needles usually two in a bundle, seldom over 2 y 2 inches long. 



a. Needles 1^4 to 2% inches long; seeds small, winged. 



4. Pinus contorta murrayana. 



b. Needles % to 1% inches long; seeds large, apparently 

 wingless. 



5. Pinus editUs. 



BRISTLE-CONE PINE, HICKORY PINE, FOXTAIL PINE 



Pinus aristata Kiigelm. 



The bristle-cone pine is a tree of the high altitudes in the mountains 

 of Central and Southern Colorado, in Utah, Nevada, and in Southern 

 California and Arizona. It is a small or medium sized tree of rather 

 bushy habit, which seldom reaches a height of fifty feet, and with a short, 

 branched trunk one to three feet in thickness. The bark on young trees 

 is smooth and greyish white, but on old trunks it becomes broken into 

 flat ridges covered with small scales of a dark brownish grey color. The 

 needles are short and are borne in bundles of five. They are crowded 

 along the branchlets in such a manner as to produce an elongated brush- 

 like appearance, from which is derived the common name of ''foxtail 

 pine." The cones are about three inches long and each scale is tipped 

 with a slender, curved bristle. The wood, which is soft and light with 

 brownish colored heart wood, is possessed of but little strength and is 

 seldom used except occasionally for mine timbers and fuel. 



In Colorado this tree is only occasionally met with. It grows in 

 somewhat open groves of rather limited extent and is of but little im- 

 portance either as a lumber tree or for planting. Above Manitou, on the 

 slopes of Pikes Peak, are to be found a few small groves of this pine. 

 In the San Juan Forest of Southern Colorado it occurs in sufficiently large 

 areas to be cut for railway ties to a limited extent. 



