All photos on this page are of the type forma.
A mature tree in habitat, Michoacán; iNaturalist observation 67538203 [Adrian Romo, 2020年12月29日]
Cones and foliage on a tree in habitat, Michoacán; iNaturalist observation 129507752 [Dulce Ríos, 2022年07月25日]
Cones and foliage from a tree in habitat, Michoacán; iNaturalist observation 246639997 [Omar Lopez Samperio, 2024年10月10日]
Cone from a tree in habitat, Guanajuato; iNaturalist observation 263729023 [Richard Hasegawa, 2025年02月28日]
Recently germinated seedlings [Facebook post by Victor Hugo Garza Guajardo, 2020年03月15日].
Distribution of P. pseudostrobus (Critchfield and Little 1966).
Conservation Status
Pinus pseudostrobus
Lindl. (1839)
Macochyaj, macohtai, pino blanco, pino lacio, pino liso, pino real (Lopez-Upton 2003).
There are 3 infraspecific taxa:
Of these, the typical form is by far the most widely distributed and common one. Forma protuberans and f. megacarpa are uncommon and narrowly distributed.
Synonyms (heterotypic, uncommon): P. angulata Roezl, P. protuberans var. angulata (Roezl) Carrière.
This taxon has a long and complicated history, which has its own page: Phylogenomics restructure the Pinus pseudostrobus complex. The most important point there is that two other species, P. apulcensis and P. oaxacana , have often been treated as synonyms of P. pseudostrobus. In fact, P. pseudostrobus is sister to the clade P. hartwegii+P. montezumae, with these three taxa sister to the clade P. apulcensis+P. oaxacana (Gernandt et al. 2025).
There is also some evidence of hybridization and introgression. P. pseudostrobus can hybridize in nature with its close relative P. montezumae (Perry 1991). A morphological and molecular study of 13 widely distributed populations found three independent lineages (P. pseudostrobus, P. montezumae, and their hybrid) that have coexisted and diversified, likely since the Miocene, with evidence of new lineages created through repeated introgressive hybridization combined with lineage sorting of ancestral polymorphisms. In general, samples with P. montezumae morphology were 70-100% drawn from the "montezumae" lineage, but samples with P. pseudostrobus morphology ranged from 90% "pseudostrobus" lineage to 50% "hybrid" lineage, and up to 30% "montezumae" lineage (Delgado et al. 2007).
Evergreen trees 20-40(-45) m tall and up to 100 cm dbh with a round trunk and monopodial architecture with long, spreading and ascending, usually whorled first-order branches; higher-order branches slender, spreading, downcurved to ascending. Crown depth normally 50-67% of tree height. Bark on young trees smooth, red-brown to grey-brown, with age becoming darker, thick and scaly, with elongated plates and deep longitudinal fissures. Shoots slender, smooth, glaucous or pruinose, with short decurrent pulvini. Cataphylls 10-15 mm long, soon recurved, with ciliate margins, reddish brown to dark brown, falling shortly after the fascicles. Fascicle sheaths (15-)20-30(-35) mm long, persistent, red-brown, weathering grey-brown. Leaves in fascicles of 5, rarely 4 or 6, in lax tufts at the ends of upturned branches, persisting 2-3 years, slender, straight, spreading or drooping, (18-)20-30(-35) cm × 0.8-1.3 mm, with serrulate margins, glaucous-green. Stomata on all faces of leaves, in (2-)3-7 lines on the outer face and 2-4(-5) lines on each inner face. Pollen cones crowded near the basal end of a new shoot, numerous, spreading, ovoid-oblong to cylindrical, 20-35 × 5-7 mm, yellow, turning brown. Seed cones subterminal, solitary or in pairs (rarely whorls of 3-4) on very short, stout peduncles which remain with a few cone scales on the branch when the cone has fallen. Immature cones ovoid, 15-20 × 10-12 mm, with small, spreading spines, purple-brown, maturing in two seasons. Mature cones ovoid-oblong, asymmetrical, often curved at base, ovoid-oblong to broad-ovoid when opened, then 7-16 × 6-13 cm. Seed scales ca. 140-190, parting to release the seeds except the proximal infertile scales, usually woody, oblong, straight or slightly curved, red-brown to dark purple-brown. Apophysis variable from nearly flat to elongated, more so on one side of the cone and toward the base, transversely keeled, tapering to an obtuse or mucronate umbo, rhombic or pentagonal, upper margin angular, irregularly undulate, or rounded, colour in various hues of brown. Umbo dorsal, variable, from obtuse to prominent, 3-15 mm long, 5-10 mm wide at base, without a prickle or prickle deciduous, usually darker than the apophysis. Seeds obliquely ovoid, slightly flattened, 5-7 × 3-4.5 mm, ochraceous to grey-brown, with or without dark spots. Seed wings articulate, effective, held to the seed by two claws, thinly covering part of the seed on one side, obliquely-ovate, with a straight side, 20-25 × 7-10 mm, yellowish brown, translucent, distal portions darker. Seedlings: The hypocotyl of this species is consistently longer (mean 31.8 mm) than that of P montezumae (mean 17.5 mm). Cotyledons (7-)8-12(-13). Pollen dispersal occurs in February-April, depending on location and altitude (Farjon and Styles 1997). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy, which differs between the type and var. apulcensis.
Loock (1950) describes f. megacarpa as differing from the type in having cones 5-8 inches (12.7-20.3 cm) long. He describes f. protuberans has having apophyses with very prominent, somewhat elongated and rounded umbos, and as having cones larger than the median of the type forma.
The species begins reproducing at 6 to 7 years and flowers in February and March (Patiño-Valera 1973, cited in Lopez-Upton 2003). The interval between large cone crops is from 3 to 5 years (Zamora-Serrano and others 1993, cited in Lopez-Upton 2003). In central Mexico, seeds average 53,705 per kg. In Chiapas, México, seeds average 44,500 per kg (Patiño-Valera 1973, Zamora-Serrano and others 1993, both cited in Lopez-Upton 2003). Wood production is 12 to 30 m3/ha/yr (Pancel 1993, cited in Lopez-Upton 2003).
P. pseudostrobus is very similar to other, closely-related species, particularly P. apulcensis and P. oaxacana . This table provides a comparison between these species. Table 1 in Escobar-Alonso et al. (2023) may also be helpful; it indicates that the taxa can be reliably distinguished according to traits visible in the mature seed cone.
Sources vary in description of the distribution, with much of the uncertainty stemming from historically vague discrimination between the taxa in the Pinus pseudostrobus complex. GBIF (2025) data indicate that P. pseudostrobus occurs in the following areas, with percentages indicating the fraction of records in each area: El Salvador (2%), Guatemala (16%), Honduras (3%), Mexico: Coahuila (1%), Hidalgo (4%), Jalisco (3%), México (4%), Michoacán (6%), Morelos (1%), Nuevo León (3%), Oaxaca (2%), Puebla (1%), Sonora (2%), Veracruz (7%). This indicates the species is generally most abundant in the central and eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, and the highlands of Guatemala. This expectation is supported in ecological modeling based on samples with known distribution (Fig. 4b in Lopez-Reyes et al. 2015). The occurrences in El Salvador are probably misidentifications of P. oaxacana, as perhaps are the occurrences in Honduras. Farjon and Styles (1997) would add Durango and Sinaloa to this list, but those specimens are likely recognized as P. yecorensis under current taxonomy. Specimens from Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas may be assignable to P. apulcensis subsp. estevezii. There may also be limited occurrences of P. pseudostrobus in Guanajuato and Guerrero. This is a common or abundant pine of montane to high montane habitat in the cold-temperate to warm-temperate zones. Its altitudinal range varies little with latitude, and is primarily 1900-2400 m. Annual precipitation varies from 800-2000 mm (Farjon and Styles 1997).
Forma protuberans occurs in the Distrito Federal, S Jalisco, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, and Puebla (Martínez 1948, Perry 1991, Farjon and Styles 1997). Forma megacarpa occurs "on the mountains between Mil Cumbres and Monte Obscuro, Ciudad Hidalgo, Michoacan" (Loock 1950).
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Distribution data from USGS (1999). Points represent isolated or approximate locations. Due to uncertainties in these distribution data, this map is better taken as representing the combined distribution of taxa in the P. pseudostrobus complex.
The best stands are found at about 2500 m elevation on deep volcanic soils. This tree can also be found in shallow and calcareous soils. Pinus pseudostrobus grows in temperate to warm-temperate climates, where temperatures may drop to freezing during the coldest winter months. The species is found where temperatures range from -9 to 40°C and annual rainfall from May to October is 600 to 2000 mm (Eguiluz-Piedra 1978 and Martínez 1948, both cited in Lopez-Upton 2003; Perry 1991). It can be grown in Zone 9 (cold hardiness limit between -6.6°C and -1.1°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).
Pinus pseudostrobus forms pure stands and is often dominant in mixed conifer, pine, and pine-oak forests. It commonly grows in association with P. montezumae, P. devoniana, P. gordoniana, P. maximinoi, P. leiophylla, P. ayacahuite, P. hartwegii, P. pringlei, Abies religiosa, Quercus sp., Arbutus sp., Juniperus sp., Buddleia sp., and Dasylirion sp. (Eguiluz-Piedra 1978, Perry 1991, both cited in Lopez-Upton 2003). It is occasionally associated with Liquidambar as on the wet Gulf Coast side of the mountains of central and southern Mexico. In its driest habitat in central and northern Mexico it occurs with Pinus cembroides , Juniperus flaccida , and Quercus spp., with an understory of, e.g., Agave, Buddleja, Opuntia, and Salvia (Farjon and Styles 1997).
P. pseudostrobus generally performs poorly near the lower limits of its elevation range (below ca. 2300 m), with trees appearing stressed in visual assessments, and lower cone weights. There is also some evidence of increased bark beetle mortality in the lower-elevation populations, and these patterns may be exacerbated by increasing temperatures and drought stress associated with climate change (Lopez-Toledo et al. 2017, Gómez-Pineda et al. 2022).
Fire ecology was studied by Sáenz-Ceja and Pérez-Salicrup (2020) in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve on the Michoacán-México border. They found Pinus pseudostrobus dominant in stands at 2400-2850 m elevation, Abies religiosa dominant at 3150-3300 m, and both species codominant at 2850-3150 m. The establishment pattern for both species has been continuous, represented by uneven-aged structures, suggesting that tree establishment across these elevation zones is associated with frequent, low-severity, and low-intensity fires. In frequent-fire environments the seedlings may express a "grass stage." See the "Remarks" section HERE for details on "grass stage" growth.
This species is a principal host for the dwarf mistletoes Arceuthobium aureum subsp. aureum (in Guatemala), A. aureum subsp. petersonii (in Oaxaca and Chiapas), A. durangense (in Jalisco), A. globosum subsp. grandicaule (in southern Mexico and Guatemala), and A. oaxacanum (rare, in Oaxaca) (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).
Leptoglossus occidentalis and Conophthorus ponderosae are the most important insect pests of conelets, cones, and seeds. Tetyra bipunctata produces empty seeds. Cecidomyia bisetosa causes cone death. Larvae of Cydia montezuma and Megastigmus albifrons feed on seeds (Cibrián-Tovar and others 1995, cited in Lopez-Upton 2003). Seeds and saplings are severely affected by the fungus Shaeropsis sapinea (Fr.) (Rees and Webber 1988, cited in Lopez-Upton 2003).
A specimen near Magoebaskloof in the Woodbush Forest Reserve, South Africa, was measured on 2011年08月15日 as being 50.3 m tall and 136 cm dbh (Leon Visser email 2014年11月05日). This is one of a group of 3 P. pseudostrobus growing in an area of native forest.
This is one of the most commonly harvested timber pines in southern Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala and parts of Honduras, where it is harvested for timber and pulp, and is also used as a source of resin. Its light, soft, strong, pale yellow wood has a specific gravity of 0.32 to 0.51 and is only slightly resinous. It is relatively free of knots and is widely used for general construction, hewn timber, and decorative items. It also provides firewood. Exploitation for timber has led to regional depletion of the best stands (Farjon and Styles 1997; and Eguiluz-Piedra 1978, Perry 1991, Wright and Malan 1991, Wright and Wessels 1992, Zobel 1965, all cited in Lopez-Upton 2003), but the current (2025) literature indicates the species is now widely used in plantation forestry in Mexico and is the subject of much relevant research (growth and yield, provenance studies, seed selection, etc.).
The species has been used in dendrochronological research. One study performed in Oaxaca (Naylor 1971) found generally unsatisfactory results: all sampled trees were young, complacent, and could not be crossdated. This finding was attributed to an insufficiently seasonal climate. However, Sáenz-Ceja and Pérez-Salicrup (2020) used the tree in a fire history study in Michoacán and México, and reported no problems with crossdating their samples, and Carlón Allende et al. (2016) developed a detailed dendroclimatic analysis from sampled trees.
I saw it forming nearly closed-canopy forests with many trees over 30 m tall and 100 cm DBH, in forests east of Cortes Pass, which lies beteen Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, where it grows extensively with P. hartwegii and, somewhat lower, with P. montezumae and P. veitchii. I suspect that hybrids with P. montezumae occur in this area as well; certainly there were many trees that we could not confidently assign to one or the other species.
The epithet pseudostrobus means "false Pinus strobus". P. strobus is a white pine native to the eastern U.S. and Canada, and Hartweg evidently saw a resemblance in crown form between the two taxa (Lindley 1839).
Carlón Allende, T., M. E. Mendoza, D. R. Pérez-Salicrup, J. Villanueva-Díaz, and A. Lara. 2016. Climatic responses of Pinus pseudostrobus and Abies religiosa in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, Central Mexico. Dendrochronologia 38:103–116.
Cibrián-Tovar, D., J. T. Méndez, R. Campos-Bolaños, et al. 1995. Insectos forestales de México. Chapingo, México: Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo. 453 p.
Delgado, Patricia, Rodolfo Salas-Lizana, Alejandra Vázquez-Lobo, Ana Wegier, Maria Anzidei, Elena R. Alvarez-Buylla, Giovanni G. Vendramin, and Daniel Pinero. 2007. Introgressive hybridization in Pinus montezumae Lamb. and Pinus pseudostrobus Lindl. (Pinaceae): morphological and molecular (cpSSR) evidence. International Journal of Plant Sciences 168(6):861-875.
Eguiluz-Piedra, T. 1978. Ensayo de integracion de los conocimientos del género Pinus. Chapingo, México: Universidad Autonoma Chapingo. 430 p. Tesis Profesional.
Escobar-Alonso, S., J. J. Vargas-Hernández, J. López-Upton, S. Escobar-Alonso, J. J. Vargas-Hernández, and J. López-Upton. 2023. Ability of morphological traits from needles and cones to identify Pinus pseudostrobus Lindl. varieties. Revista Chapingo serie ciencias forestales y del ambiente 29:99–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.5154/r.rchscfa.2022年05月03日8.
Farjon, A., and B. T. Styles. 1997. Pinus (Pinaceae). Flora Neotropica Monograph 75. New York, NY: The New York Botanical Garden.
[GBIF] Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2025年11月09日. GBIF Occurrence Download, all records for Pinus pseudostrobus var. pseudostrobus. https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.4qyze6.
Gernandt, D.S., Willyard, A., Vázquez-Lobo, A., Moreno-Letelier, A., Delgado, P., Figueroa, D.S. and González-Elizondo, M.S. 2025. Multilocus phylogenetics of Pinus subsection Ponderosae using the Hyb-Seq method. Botanical Sciences 103:95-112.
Gómez-Pineda, Erika, William M. Hammond, Oscar Trejo-Ramirez, Margarita Gil-Fernández, Craig D. Allen, Arnulfo Blanco-García, and Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero. 2022. Drought years promote bark beetle outbreaks in Mexican forests of Abies religiosa and Pinus pseudostrobus. Forest Ecology and Management 505:119944.
Lindley, J. 1839. Edwards's Botanical Register 25:62. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025年10月17日.
Loock, E. E. M. 1950. The Pines of Mexico and British Honduras. South Africa Department of Forestry Bulletin 35.
López-Reyes, A., J. P. De La Rosa, E. Ortiz, and D. S. Gernandt. 2015. Morphological, molecular, and ecological divergence in Pinus douglasiana and P. maximinoi. Systematic Botany 40:658–670.
Lopez-Toledo, L., M. Heredia-Hernández, D. Castellanos-Acuña, A. Blanco-García, and C. Saénz-Romero. 2017. Reproductive investment of Pinus pseudostrobus along an altitudinal gradient in Western Mexico: implications of climate change. New Forests 48:867–881.
López-Upton, Javier. 2003. Pinus pseudostrobus. Species description in the Tropical Tree Seed Manual. Available http://www.rngr.net/Publications/ttsm/Folder.2003年07月11日.4726 (accessed 2007年08月31日).
Naylor, T.H. 1971. Dendrochronology in Oaxaca, Mexico: a preliminary study. Tree-Ring Bulletin 31:25-29.
Pancel, L. 1993. Tropical forestry handbook, Vol. 1. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag. 632 p.
Patiño-Valera, F. 1973. Floración, fructificación y recolección de conos y aspectos sobre semilla de pinos mexicanos. Bosques y fauna (México) 10(4): 20-30.
Perry, Jesse P. 1991. The Pines of Mexico and Central America. Portland, OR: Timber Press. 231 pp.
Rees, A. A., and J. F. Webber. 1988. Pathogenicity of Shaeropsis sapinea to seed, seedlings and saplings of some Central American pines. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 91(2):273-277.
Sáenz-Ceja, J. E., and D. R. Pérez-Salicrup. 2020. Modification of fire regimes inferred from the age structure of two conifer species in a tropical montane forest, Mexico. Forests 11:1193.
Shaw, G. R. 1909. The pines of Mexico. Publ. Arnold Arbor. 1:19. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025年10月17日.
Wright, J. W., and F. S. Malan. 1991. Variation in wood and tracheid properties of Pinus maximinoi, P. pseudostrobus and P. patula. International Association of Wood Anatomy Bulletin 12(4):467-475.
Wright, J. A., and A. Wessels. 1992. Laboratory scale pulping of Pinus pseudostrobus, P. maximinoi and P. patula. Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Florestais (IPEF International), Piracicaba. (2):39-44.
Zamora-Serrano, C., T. Fernández-Molina, M. C. Pérez-Gamboa, et al. 1993. Manual para plantaciones de coníferas en Chiapas. Folleto Misceláneo 1. Campo Experimental Rancho Nuevo, Chiapas. Mexico: Centro de Investigación Regional del Pacífico Sur, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias. 64 p.
Zobel, B. J. 1965. Variation in specific gravity and tracheid length for several species of Mexican pines. Silvae Genetica 14(1):1-12.
Elwes and Henry 1906-1913 at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This series of volumes, privately printed, provides some of the most engaging descriptions of conifers ever published. Although they only treat species cultivated in the U.K. and Ireland, and the taxonomy is a bit dated, still these accounts are thorough, treating such topics as species description, range, varieties, exceptionally old or tall specimens, remarkable trees, and cultivation. Despite being over a century old, they are generally accurate, and are illustrated with some remarkable photographs and lithographs.
Loudon, J. C. 1842. An Encyclopaedia of Trees and Shrubs; Being the Arboretum et Fruticetum Abridged. London: Published by the author (pp. 1014-1015). Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025年11月09日. This is an illustration of the type specimen, drawn when it was still reasonably fresh.
Last Modified 2025年11月14日
