THE PINYON PINE

From Palaver Invitations 51 - 75
Appendix E, referencing Palaver #61

by Jack Harris

Jack Harris, Palaver #82, 1995


The 20,000 year period that man has inhabited the Southwest, the Pinyon Pine has been growing there to supply him with an important source of food. Long before the appearance of man, however, many types of bird and beast were enjoying this annual fall harvest.

Four species of Pinyon are now recognized, all growing in the Western United States and Northern Mexico, and each species dominat ing the area in which it is found.

Pinus monophylla - the Single Leaf Pinyon, is also known as the Gray, Fremont or Nevada Nut Pine. It is the State Tree of Nevada. First described by Captain John C. Fremont in January of 1844 as he searched for a pass from the Mojave Desert through the Sierra Nevada to the interior valleys of California. This Pinyon enjoys a large growing area from Southern Idaho, south through Nevada, Utah, Western Arizona, Southern California and Northern Baja California.

Pinus edulis - the Two Leaf Pinyon, is also known as the New Mexico, Colorado, Mesa or Common Pinyon Pine. New Mexico adopted this Pine as its State Tree. Widely distributed in the four states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, it is the Pinyon from which the major portion of Pine Nuts are harvested for local con sumption or for sale in the United States. Dr. Jaeger, in 1928, was the first to discover this Pinyon growing in California in the New York Mountains of Eastern California.

Pinus cembroides - the Three Leaf Pinyon - or Mexican Pinyon, is found growing in the highlands of Central and Northern Mexico, and the Big Bend region of Western Texas. The nuts of this Pinyon are the commonest Pine seeds sold in the markets through out Mexico. The shells of this Pinyon are the hardest of the four species, accounting for its third name of Stone Seed Pinyon. Besides its ] hard seeds, the leaves of this Pinyon are less stubby, being much finer, more flexible and longer.

Pinus parryana, or in some source books it is named Pinus quadrifolia - the Four Leaf Pinyon. The common English name Parry’s Nut Pine was named for the Botanist Dr. Charles C. Parry by his good friend the Physician and Botanist Dr. George Engelmann (1809- i884). The rarest of the four Pinyon varieties, it is found growing in quantity in Northern Baja California and a fringe area of Southern California.

While the nuts become ripe in late September and early October, the trees do not always produce a bountiful crop, taking two years for the pine cones to reach maturity. For the natives depending on this source of food, a poor yield meant a tightening of the belt with a meager supply of grass and herb seeds and an occasional passing grasshopper on which to tide them over.

Besides a source of food for the early inhabitants, as the white man pushed west in his search for precious metals, the wood of the Pinyon trees became an important source of fuel, much to the consternation and anger of the Indians. The hills and rocky terrain soon became denuded of the sparsely growing trees as acre after acre was chopped down to be converted into charcoal for the smelters in the areas where gold and silver were discovered.

The extensiveness of this slaughter of Pinyon trees can be readily understood when one realizes an acre produced a scant ten cords of wood and the early pit kilns consumed one-hundred cords of wood at a firing.

An extremely slow growing Pine, a mature tree two-hundred years old could have a trunk one foot in diameter and be less than twenty five feet tall. Dr. Jaeger proudly pointed out the Pinyon he had growing near his back door under the kitchen window. Planted in 1960, when last seen, (1984), had reached a height of fifteen inches.


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