Pinus teocote

Schiede ex Schlechtendal et Chamisso 1830

Common names

Teocotl [Nahuatl]. A common Mexican Spanish name for pines in general, ocote, is derived from this name. English names include Aztec pine (hort.) and teocote pine.

Taxonomic notes

One of about 23 species in subsection Australes. The type specimen was collected by Schiede and Deppe on the slopes of Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's highest peak.

Description

Evergreen trees to 25 m tall and 75 cm dbh, usually with a single, fairly straight trunk and a pyramidal to rounded crown of horizontally spreading branches with slightly drooping terminal foliar units. Bark dark gray-brown, rough, scaly, thick, longitudinally fissured. Twigs smooth, orange-brown. Leaves in fascicles of 3 with a persistent sheath initially 20 mm long, wearing down over time, light green, persisting 2-3 years, slightly stiff (not drooping), straight or slightly curved, 1-1.4 mm thick, 10-15 cm long, sharp-pointed, with stomata on all faces. Pollen cones ovoid-oblong, 5 × 10-18 mm, yellow-green. Seed cones numerous, remaining several years after maturity, ovoid with a broad, flattened base when open, variably asymmetrical, 4-6 × 2-2.5 cm when open. Seed scales woody, thick, with a more or less flat light brown apophysis and dorsal, blunt pyramidal umbo with a tiny, deciduous prickle. Seeds dark brown, 3-5 mm long with a translucent 12-18 mm wing (Farjon 2010, pers. obs. in field).

Distribution and Ecology

Mexico: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Mexico, Distrito Federal, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas; Guatemala (Farjon and Styles 1997). As such it is one of the most widespread Central American pines. Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001). See also Thompson et al. (1999).

Distribution data from USGS (1999). Points represent isolated or approximate locations.

Occurs at 1000-3300 m elevation, often on thin and sometimes calcareous soils, usually with 500-1000 mm annual precipitation, frost uncommon. With its extensive range, it occurs in quite a variety of habitats, but usually with Quercus spp. in woodland or open forest, and with a variety of pines such as P. arizonica, P. engelmannii, P. durangensis, P. leiophylla, P. montezumae, P. oocarpa, and P. patula (Farjon 2010).

Remarkable Specimens

Ethnobotany

Observations

Although this species is in principle widely distributed, I have found it to be uncommon in much of its range, becoming a dominant forest component only on the Transverse Volcanic Plateau and north of there along the Sierra Madre Oriental. It can be found easily near the town of San Miguel in San Luis Potosí (see photos at right), where it grows in the company of fine examples of Pinus montezumae and P. greggii (var. australis, which is very limited in its distribution).

Remarks

The epithet teocote is from a Nahuatl name for pine.

This species is a principal host for the dwarf mistletoes Arceuthobium globosum subsp. grandicaule (in southern Mexico), Arceuthobium rubrum (in Durango and Sinaloa), and A. nigrum, the latter having been described from a collection on this species 51 km E of El Salto on highway 40, the Durango-Mazatlan highway (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996). See the "Remarks" in Abies durangensis for a relevant story.

Citations

See also

Elwes and Henry 1906-1913 at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This series of volumes, privately printed, provides some of the most engaging descriptions of conifers ever published. Although they only treat species cultivated in the U.K. and Ireland, and the taxonomy is a bit dated, still these accounts are thorough, treating such topics as species description, range, varieties, exceptionally old or tall specimens, remarkable trees, and cultivation. Despite being over a century old, they are generally accurate, and are illustrated with some remarkable photographs and lithographs.

Perry (1991).