Piñon Pine Is The Official State Tree Of New Mexico. New Mexico Adopted the piñon pine or nut pine (Pinus edulis) as the official state tree in 1948. New Mexico State Tree Sometimes called two-needle piñon, it is found mostly in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. When the New Mexico Federation of Women’s Clubs was asked to select a State Tree Of New Mexico, They ran a series of contests to narrow the field. In the end, they chose the nut pine or pinon tree (Pinus edulis) most often referred to in symbol lists as the pinon pine. The quaking aspen, adopted in 2014 as Utah’s state tree, was runner-up to the nut pine. The New Mexico State Tree Pinyon Pine tree is a slow-growing, compact, long-lived, drought-tolerant tree. State Tree Of New Mexico Pinus edulis is native to the desert mountains of California, east to New Mexico and Texas, and north to Wyoming. Because of its relatively small size for a pine tree, it is well suited to gardens and containers.
Pinon (Pine)
Scientific Names:
Pinon = Pinus edulis
Parry Pinon = Pinus quadrifolia
Description:
All Species are small bushy evergreen trees with short trunk, horizontal branching, and rounded crowns. Found in semi-arid regions of the west. Sometimes New Mexico State Tree called Mexican Nut Pine, it is native to both Arizona and New Mexico, where the seeds are harvested and sold as nuts. Once a staple food of southwestern Indians, Pinon ranks first among the native nut trees of the United States that are not also cultivated.
Needles: Needles are 1 to 1/2 inches long, and grow singly on Singleleaf Pinon, in pairs on Pinon and Mexican Pinon, in fours on the Parry Pinon.
Fruit: Large edible seeds; reddish to yellow-brown, oval to globular, 1-3 inches long, scales thick, resinous, seed diversely shaped, 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches long, oily, brown to black.
Height: 20 to 35 feet tall
Elevation: Elevation: 4000 to 9000 feet.
Water Requirements: 12 inches precipitation equivalent, drought-tolerant, will not tolerate the high water table. Once established, requires no additional water.
Form: A small tree with an irregularly rounded crown.
Habitat: Open, orchardlike woodlands, alone or with junipers. Mostly on dry, rocky foothills, mesas, plateaus, and lower mountain slopes.