Family: Pinaceae, Pine view all from this family
Description Tree with conical, rounded, or irregular crown of stout, spreading branches and with numerous spiny cones remaining closed many years;
Height: 40-80' (12-24 m).
Diameter: 2-3' (0.6-0.9 m).
Needles: evergreen; 2 in bundle; 4-6" (10-15 cm) long. Stout, slightly flattened, stiff, blunt-pointed, dull green.
Bark: dark gray, very thick, furrowed into scaly plates; smoothish on branches.
Cones: 2-3 1/2" (5-9 cm) long; conical or egg-shaped, shiny yellow-brown, stalkless; oblique or 1-sided at base; many clustered in rings or whorls; cone-scales raised and keeled, those on outer part much enlarged, ending in stout, flattened, straight or curved spine.
Habitat Low hills and plains along coast in fog belt; in scattered groves and with other pines.
Range Coast of central and N. California and Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa islands; also local in Baja California; a variety on Cedros Island, Mexico; near sea level.
Discussion The numerous cones remain closed, even when enclosed by the bark and wood of the expanding trunk. Fossil cones from the Pleistocene, or glacial, epoch indicate that this pine was associated with extinct vertebrates, including the woolly mammoth. Its common name apparently refers to the discovery of this local pine in 1835 near the mission of San Luis Obispo (Saint Louis, Bishop of Toulouse) in California.
