Pinus edulis

Pinus edulis, the Colorado pinyon or pinyon pine, is a small pine of the southwestern United States, valued for its large edible seeds and the species most associated with the name pinyon. It is a shrub to moderate-sized tree, usually 5 to 15 metres tall and occasionally up to 21 metres, with a pyramidal crown that rounds with age, blue-green needles mostly in bundles of two, and wingless seeds 8 to 16 millimetres long. Slow growing and long lived, stands of 300 to 1,000 years old trees survive where fire has not disturbed them. Its core range is Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, where it forms pinyon-juniper woodland at about 1,500 to 2,100 metres, with outlying populations in Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. The tree depends on the pinyon jay for seed dispersal, is a host of pinyon dwarf mistletoe and is attacked by the pinyon ips beetle. Its nuts are a traditional food of the Western Apache, Hopi, Tewa and Navajo peoples, its resin has been used for dyes and waterproofing, and it is the state tree of New Mexico.