Nevada State Tree

Nevada State Tree

Bristlecone Pine & Single-Leaf Pinyon

Nevada-state-trees

Nevada has 2 official state trees, the bristlecone pine and the single-leaf pinyon.

LeafAcicular, short (1 to 1 1/2 inches long), curved, fascicles of 5, dark green but usually covered with white dots of dried resin. Remain on the tree for
10-17 years, giving a bushy appearance that resembles a fox’s tail.

Flower

Monoecious; male cones are small, dark orange and often clustered near
the ends of branches; female cones occur singly or in pairs near the ends of
branches.

Fruit

Moderately sized woody cone (about 3 inches long) with a short stalk;
imbricate scales are thickened and tipped with a long bristle, giving rise to
its common name. Seeds are winged.

Twig

Orange-brown when young but darkening with age.

Bark

Young bark is thin, smooth, and gray-white later becoming furrowed and reddish-brown. Old trees on harsh, windy sites may have only a few strands of bark remaining in crevices where it is protected from sandblasting winds.

Form

Typically small and contorted by the wind and harsh growing conditions, grows very slowly.

Nevada-state-trees
Copyright 2019 Virginia Tech Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental
Conservation; Photos and text by: John Seiler, Edward Jensen,
Alex Niemiera, and John Peterson;Silvics reprinted from Ag
Handbook 654; range map source information