Pinyon Pine, Piñón Pine, Two-needle Pinyon, Colorado Pinyon              PI-nus ED-yew-lee

• Conifer, evergreen tree, to about 45 ft (14 m) tall, often a short, crooked trunk and a low rounded head of spreading branches; slow growing.  Bark gray or reddish brown, rough, furrowed into scaly ridges.  Leaves (needles) 6-11 cm long, two per bundle (rarely 3), stout, yellow-green to blue-green, marked with numerous rows of stomata.  Cones 4-5 cm long, borne singly or in groups of 2-4, mature in 2 years, egg-shaped, yellow brown, resinous or sticky, cone-scale thick, blunt, seeds large (10-15 mm), wingless, edible, 10-20 per cone.
• Sun.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3      Native range covers the Southern Rocky Mountains from Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, also found in southwest Wyoming and eastern Nevada, extreme northwest Oklahoma, Tran-Pecos Texas, and southeastern California and northern Mexico.  The most common tree on the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.
• The State Tree of New Mexico.
• edulis: Latin, edible, the seeds.
• The seeds ("pine nuts") are harvested in autumn (generally September through October) by local residents if they can get to them before they are consumed by pinyon jays, turkeys, woodrats, bears, deer and other wildlife.  P. edulis is the main pinyon pine in the southwestern U.S., two other important pinyon pines are the Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and the Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides).
• Silverton, Oregon: The Oregon Garden - Conifer Garden.