I bought some seeds for pinus ayacahuite, sourced from guatemala. I know the Mexican white pines are in general confused taxa. If these are collected from guatemala are they ayacahuite, strobiformis, stylesii or is there no way of telling?
Guatemala has other white pines as well, apparently (try "pinus guatemala"). Gymnosperm Database Search Page
I think just strobiformis and ayacahuite are in Guatemala from the white pine group. I also found a forestry supplier in Mexico that supplies p. Greggii from a seed orchard. They want to sell seed by the kilo though... its not that expensive but just wasteful. Its just a hobby im not set up for thousands of seedlings.
Pinus ayacahuite occurs in Guatemala; Pinus strobiformis doesn't (confined to northwestern Mexico), nor does P. stylesii (NE Mexico). One other does though, Pinus chiapensis (and likely won't be hardy outdoors in Texas). For identification: Seeds over 9 mm long: P. ayacahuite. Seeds under 8 mm long: P. chiapensis.
They were in the mail today. Most were 1 cm or close to it de-winged, a few probably 8 mm or less, so probably were true to their label. I am thinking and hoping the taxon can tolerate some heat and humidity. Ron I did follow the link, I am familiar with that resource. I know there are other pines in Guatemala I was only interested in the ones that could be confused as or misunderstood to be something in that group of white pines where the taxonomy is less clear. It looks like chiapensis is different enough and occurs at different elevation that it is less likely to be mixed up.
