''Pinus douglasiana'' is a species of evergreen

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

in the family

Pinaceae The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly kn ...

. It is found only in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. A common name is Douglas pine, but that name is often applied to the more widespread species ''

Pseudotsuga menziesii The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...

'' which is also known as Douglas fir.

Description

''Pinus douglasiana'' is typically a tall tree, up to 45 meters in height, with a single strait trunk up to 100 cm in diameter at the base. In mature trees the trunk is often clear of branches for 2/3 of the tree's height. The crown is pyramidal in young trees, becoming rounded in older trees, and varying from dense to open. In young trees and new branches the bark is smooth and red-brown. As trees mature the bark becomes rough and scaly, and divided into large irregular plates by deep fissures."Pinus douglasiana". ''The Gymnosperm Database''. Accessed 2 April 2022

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Habitat and range

''Pinus douglasiana'' inhabits the mountains of western and central Mexico, where it grows between 1100 and 2700 meters elevation. It is found in the southern

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American ...

up to the crest of the mountains along the border of

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and ...

and

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

, in the western

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt ( es, Eje Volcánico Transversal), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks h ...

in the states of Nayarit,

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal ...

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

México Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatem ...

and

Morelos Morelos (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cue ...

, and locally in the

Sierra Madre del Sur The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca. Geography The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Tran ...

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

and

Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...

. It is often found with other pines, including ''

Pinus pseudostrobus ''Pinus pseudostrobus'', known in English as the smooth-bark Mexican pine and in Spanish as ''chamite'' or ''pacingo'', is a tree found in forests of Mexico and Central America. It is 8 to 25 m tall with a dense and round top.It is threatened b ...

Pinus herrerae ''Pinus herrerae'', Herrera's pine, is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is found only in Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the ...

Pinus leiophylla ''Pinus leiophylla'', commonly known as Chihuahua pine, smooth-leaf pine,''Pinus leiophylla'' was originally described and published in ''Linnaea'' 6:354. 1831. and yellow pine (in Mexico, tlacocote and ocote chino), is a tree with a range prima ...

, Pinus lawsonii'', and '' Pinus ayacahuite'' in the southern part of its range. At lower elevations it is sometimes found with '' Pinus oocarpa'', and with ''

Pinus devoniana ''Pinus devoniana'' is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae. It is found in more than 15 states of Mexico - from S. Sinaloa to Chiapas - and Guatemala in montane, relatively open pine or pine-oak forests at altitudes from .Farjon et al. 19 ...

'' on drier sites. In some areas oaks (''Quercus'' spp.) are co-dominant canopy trees, especially in areas which have been logged of pines. In high-elevation, high-rainfall sites in the Sierra Madre Occidental, it occurs with species of ''

Abies Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely re ...

'', ''

Picea A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

'', and ''

Cupressus lusitanica ''Cupressus lusitanica'', the Mexican cedar or cedar-of-Goa, is a species of cypress native to Mexico and Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). It has also been introduced to Belize, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, growing at altitu ...

''. It is parasitized by the mistletoe ''

Cladocolea cupulata ''Cladocolea cupulata'' is a species of dioecious, parasitic mistletoe in the family Loranthaceae. The natural range of ''Cladocolea cupulata'' is throughout parts of Jalisco, Mexico, where it is known to specifically grow on pine trees (''Pinu ...

'' the dwarf mistletoe ''

Arceuthobium globosum The genus ''Arceuthobium'', commonly called dwarf mistletoes, is a genus of 26 species of parasitic plants that parasitize members of Pinaceae and Cupressaceae in North America, Central America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Of the 42 species that h ...

'' subsp. ''grandicaule''.

Conservation and use

The tree is harvested commercially for timber. It is assessed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. ...

in the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q147472 douglasiana Least concern plants Flora of the Sierra Madre Occidental Flora of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt Endemic flora of Mexico Flora of the Sierra Madre del Sur Taxonomy articles created by Polbot