Flora of New Zealand Series

Ponderosa pine

Medium-sized to large, open tree (over 30 m high in cultivation). Bark thick, fissured, reddish brown beneath. Shoots brown or brownish green, glabrous, shining. Buds ovoid or cylindric-ovoid, sometimes large, slightly resinous; scales fimbriate, often dark, free towards apex. Foliage in dense terminal clusters in mature trees, dull green. Lvs 3-(4) per fascicle, 10-23-(27) cm × 1.3-1.6-(2) mm, rigid; resin canals median; sheaths prominent, > 2 cm long when young, 5-20 mm long around older lf bases. ♂ strobili mostly 1.5-2 cm long, broad-cylindric. Conelets sessile; scales aristate. Mature open cones sessile, ± pendent, 6-14-(18) × 5-10 cm, ovoid-oblong before dehiscence, symmetric, shining brown, deciduous and dehiscent at or soon after maturity but leaving basal scales; apophyses flattened or slightly concave; umbo with prickle deflexed at maturity. Seed wing 1.5-2.5 cm long, large, broad, asymmetric.

N.; S.: mainly near plantations and state forests from S. Auckland to C. Otago, especially the Rotorua-Taupo area.

Western N. America 1925

Tracks and roadsides near planted trees.

Possibly poisonous (Connor 1977).

Ponderosa pine is cultivated in many plantations and state forests and isolated trees are commonly grown in windbreaks around farms and domains in most parts of the country. P. ponderosa is very variable in N.Z. and regeneration differs greatly among the forms, probably partly as a consequence of their different provenances. Another 2 distinct taxa are cultivated in N.Z. but are not known to be wild: P. ponderosa var. scopulorum Engelm. has fascicles of 2 small needles and small cones, and at the other end of the range are very large-needled plants which are more like the very closely-related P. jeffreyi Grev. et Balf. (sometimes treated as P. ponderosa var. jeffreyi (Grev. et Balf.) Vasey) which is mainly distinguished by its glaucous shoots.