Description
Pinus johannis is a small to medium-size tree, often just a shrub, reaching 4–10 metres (13–33 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 50 cm. The bark is grey-brown, thin and scaly at the base of the trunk. The leaves ('needles') are in mixed fascicles of three and four, slender, 3–6 cm long, and deep green to blue-green, with stomata confined to a bright white band on the inner surfaces.
The cones are globose, 2–4 cm long and 2–3 cm broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-brown when 16–18 months old, with only a small number of thin, fragile scales, typically 6-12 fertile scales. The cones open to 3–5 cm broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening. The seeds are 9–12 mm long, with a thick shell, a white endosperm, and a vestigial 1–2 mm wing; they are dispersed by the Mexican Jay, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a major food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use; some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new trees.
Read more about this topic: Pinus Johannis
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