Egg-Cone Pine (Pinus oocarpa Schiede)

Abstract

Pinus oocarpa Schiede belongs to the closed-cone pine group (Oocarpae) of the Central American region that contains four other closely related species (Barnes and Styles 1983). The species is known by a number of descriptive common names, including pino ocote, pino colorado (Robbins 1983), and egg-cone pine (Rushforth 1987). Its gross morphology is that of a typical pine (Fig. 1). The tree grows to a height of 12 to 18 min its native habitat (Anonymous 1962), achieving a diameter of 75 cm. Exceptional sites can produce trees 45 m tall and 1 m in girth at breast height (Robbins 1983). Fascicles contain needles mostly in groups of five, sometimes three or four, and rarely six (Styles et al. 1982; Loock 1977). Female cones are borne in groups of up to three, being ovoid to ovoid-conic (egg-shaped) when closed, and are generally persistent on the tree after maturity (Styles et al. 1982). Robbins (1983) describes the tree’s form as “...generally good, with a straight bole and a moderate to light branching habit when growing in stands, with the crown forming 1 /4 to 1/3 of the bole height. Open grown trees have large, deep crowns and fairly coarse branching.” Young trees will sprout from the root collar region (Greaves 1982) or higher up (Robbins 1983) after injury by fire or grazing. Stem kill may occur repetitively over several seasons because of frequent fires. Repetitive coppicing will occur until the absence of fire allows the tree to grow to a more fire-tolerant size (Chable 1967).