Pinus muricata, Bishop Pine (26)

Bishop Pines are coniferous evergreens. Their needles appear in bundles of two, and range from bluish green to pure green, based on the variety and the tree’s location. The needles are usually about 5 inches long. The Bishop Pine produces cones which occur whorled around the branches in groups of several cones. The cones are not symmetrical, are brown, and have blunt or slightly curved spines at the tips of the scales. The cones are serotinous; in other worlds, they persist on the tree in a closed state, even after the seeds within have matured.

The Bishop Pine has a range that is concentrated in the northern and central California coast; however, the tree can occur as far south as the Cedros Islands off Mexico (at 13 degrees latitude) (Mirov, 1967). It is remarkably tolerant of harsh coastal habitats, and can be found from sea level to about 5000 feet. Stands of Bishop Pines are usually about the same age (generally no more than 100 years). The trees are short lived and very susceptible to fire.

The remarkable thing about the Bishop Pine is its variability (Mirov, 1967, Stuart and Sawyer, 2001). Even though its range is fairly limited, it occurs in a variety of morphologies. Sometimes, it is stunted, other times it is up to 80 feet tall. Some differences are not as easily linked to the condition of the habitat. Needles vary in color from blue green in the north to green in the south of the range.