The very first post in the UBC conifer photo forum is my favorite tree, pinus remota. Perry in "The Pines of Mexico and Central America: describes it as follows: "A small, limby tree 3-8 meters tall; mature trees have a rounded irregular crown while in young trees the crown is much more dense and pyramidal in form . . . LEAVES - mostly in fascicles of 2, occasionally 3, slender, flexible 3-5 cm long . . . CONES - Small, globose, symetrical, dehiscent and deciduous, 2.5 - 3.5 cm long and 3-5 cm wide when open . . ." Its found on a small portion of the edwards plateau in Texas and in parts of west Texas as well as in Mexico. Perry indicates most of the Mexican populations are in the state of Coahuila. These photos were taken by me on the edwards plateau in the summer of 2007.
Re: Pinus remota - some with cones when I took those pictures last year none of the the trees had any cones. This year was a bumper crop and I was able to get a fair amount of viable seed. Some trees less than 6 feet tall had cones so I guess the species can cone at a young age, albeit inconsistently. The shells are very thin, easy to break in your fingers and the seed inside tastes good.
