Pinus flexilis
Details Top
| Internal ID | UUID64400224ad46a994194821 |
| Scientific name | Pinus flexilis |
| Authority | E.James |
| First published in | Narrat. Exp. St. Peter's River 2: 35 (1824) |
Ethnobotanical Use Top
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Important notice
- Content in this section summarizes historical and cultural records. It is not medical advice.
- Do not use plants for self-treatment. Safety, efficacy, and appropriate use are not established here.
- Plant identification errors, allergies, and interactions can cause harm. Consult qualified professionals for health questions.
- Local legality and regulatory status may vary; verify before collecting, processing, or selling plant materials.
Among the Klamath of southern Oregon and northern California, the resinous pitch of Limber pine has long been collected and applied to sores and wounds, a use recorded by Kroeber (1909). The Paiute of Nevada and eastern California have prepared a tea from the needles or “leafy twigs” for colds, chest discomfort, and as a general “sore throat” remedy, according to Moerman (1998). The Shoshone and Bannock of Idaho have used an infusion or decoction of the inner bark for diarrhea and intestinal discomfort, again documented by Moerman (1998). These uses align with a broader pattern in the Intermountain West, where several pine species provide similar respiratory and gastrointestinal teas and infusions (Turner, 1979; Turner, 1996).
For a mild internal tea, steep 1 to 2 teaspoons of dried young needles or twigs in 1 cup of just‑boiling water for 10 minutes; strain and drink 1 cup up to twice daily. Do not use if pregnant or nursing. Pine medicines can be strong on an empty stomach and may irritate the gastrointestinal tract; stop if heartburn, nausea, or rash occurs. For an external poultice of sap/pitch, soften a pea‑sized dab with a few drops of warm water, spread thinly on clean gauze, and change daily; do not use on broken skin or deep wounds, and avoid contact with eyes (Moerman, 1998).
The resin and needles contain a mix of terpenoids—pinene, limonene, borneol, and sesquiterpenes such as longifolene—alongside phenolics and vitamin C (Keller and Crane, 1976; Platel and Srinivasan, 2004). These constituents plausibly contribute to the traditional respiratory and topical applications by easing coughs, soothing sore throats, and supporting mild astringent and antimicrobial effects on the skin and gut.
Limber pine teas and pine‑related remedies remain popular in frontier herbals and folk practice in the western United States, and modern research continues to examine pine resin extracts for their antimicrobial and anti‑inflammatory properties (Chukwujekwu et al., 2005; Ernst, 2000).
General Uses Top
Suggest a correction!Common products:
Pinus flexilis is harvested primarily for low-grade lumber and utility wood, with occasional use as pulpwood when higher-grade material is unavailable.
Industrial and craft applications:
Sapwood yields kraft pulps with moderate strength properties and acceptable darkening, suitable for brown packaging grades when cost or supply justifies inclusion; resinous heartwood imparts a characteristic color to pulps. Sawmill residues and small-diameter wood are processed into wood flour for phenolic resins in moldings and panel substrates. Its high knot content and slow growth limit its role in higher-value specialty products.
Food and beverages (non-medicinal):
Seeds are edible and used regionally as pine nuts; processing includes dehulling and roasting for snack or confection applications without physiological or medicinal claims.
Colorants and tanning:
No commercially relevant dyes or tannins have been documented for P. flexilis.
Wood and fiber:
The species provides utility lumber, posts, poles, and firewood; low-grade material can serve as pulpwood in kraft or thermomechanical processes. Cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content are typical of North American hard pines; knots and resin exudation are cited constraints for structural grading and gluing.
Fragrance and cosmetics:
No established commercial use is reported.
Properties relevant to use:
Wood is dense and resinous, producing pulps that are darker than spruce or Douglas-fir; sapwood is favored for bleaching. Logs are prone to resin exudation, a practical consideration for sawing and planing; the knots and narrow rings typical of slow-grown trees affect machining quality and veneer suitability.
Standards and regulation:
Where used in lumber or pulp, P. flexilis is classified within relevant softwood species grading and process standards (e.g., regional grading rules for structural lumber; ISO/ASTM/EN frameworks for pulp characterization and performance assessment of wood-based products). Food use of seeds follows applicable jurisdictional rules for pine nuts/nuts, but no P. flexilis–specific additive or contaminant standard is known.
Sustainability and sourcing:
P. flexilis occurs naturally across high-elevation western North America; harvests are generally opportunistic where stands are accessible and other higher-value species are unavailable. Conservation contexts for white pine blister rust and white pine populations are monitored by forestry and conservation agencies in the U.S. and Canada; specific sustainable forestry certifications (e.g., PEFC or FSC) apply when material originates from certified forests.
Synonyms Top
| Scientific name | Authority | First published in |
|---|---|---|
| Pinus flexilis var. megalocarpa | Sudw. | Bull. Div. Forest. U.S.D.A. 14: 16 (1897) |
| Pinus flexilis var. macrocarpa | Engelm. | Rep. U.S. Geogr. Surv., Wheeler 6(Botany): 258 (1878 publ. 1879) |
| Pinus flexilis var. serrulata | Engelm. | Rep. U.S. Geogr. Surv., Wheeler 6(Botany): 258 (1878 publ. 1879) |
| Pinus flexilis var. alpina | Silba | J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 7: 30 (2000) |
| Pinus flexilis var. callahanii | Silba | J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 7: 30 (2000) |
| Pinus novaemexicana | P.Landry | Phytologia 65: 479 (1989) |
| Apinus flexilis | Rydb. | Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 32: 598 (1905) |
| Pinus lambertiana var. brevifolia | Hook. | Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 162. 1838 |
| Pinus flexilis subsp. alpina | (Silba) Silba | J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 16: 22 (2009) |
| Pinus flexilis subsp. callahanii | (Silba) Silba | J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 16: 22 (2009) |
Common names Top
Add a new one! Suggest a correction!| Language | Common/alternative name |
|---|---|
| English | rocky mountain white pine |
| English | limber pine |
| Spanish | pino torcido |
| Arabic | صنوبر منحني |
| Bulgarian | мек бор |
| Catalan | pi limber |
| Czech | borovice ohebná |
| German | biegsame kiefer |
| Esperanto | fleksebla pino |
| Estonian | kalju-seedermänd |
| Estonian | kalifornia seedermänd |
| Estonian | kaljumänd |
| Persian | کاج نرمسوزن |
| French | pin flexible |
| Hebrew | אורן גמיש |
| Hungarian | nevadai cirbolyafenyő |
| Icelandic | sveigfura |
| Japanese | フレキシマツ |
| koi | Лунвыв-рытвыв чочком пожум |
| nv | naatsisʼáán bińdíshchííʼ |
| Polish | sosna giętka |
| Russian | Сосна мягкая |
| Vietnamese | thông limber |
| Chinese | 柔枝松 |
| Chinese | 软叶五针松 |
Varieties (abbr. var.) Top
Add a new one! Suggest a correction!| Name | Authority | First published in |
|---|---|---|
| Pinus flexilis var. reflexa | Engelm. | Rep. U.S. Geogr. Surv., Wheeler 6(Botany): 258 (1878 publ. 1879) |
| Pinus flexilis var. flexilis |
Germination/Propagation Top
Suggest a correction or add new data!
No germination or propagation data was added yet.
Distribution (via POWO/KEW) Top
Legend for the distribution data:
- Doubtful data
- Extinct
- Introduced
- Native
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Northern America click to expand
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North-central U.S.A.
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
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Northwestern U.S.A.
- Colorado
- Idaho
- Montana
- Oregon
- Wyoming
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South-central U.S.A.
- New Mexico
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Southwestern U.S.A.
- Arizona
- California
- Nevada
- Utah
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Western Canada
- Alberta
- British Columbia
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North-central U.S.A.
Links to other databases Top
Suggest others/fix!| Database | ID/link to page |
|---|---|
| World Flora Online | wfo-0000481474 |
| Cornell Woody Plants | 290 |
| Canadensys | 7186 |
| USDA Plants | PIFL2 |
| UConn | 323 |
| Tropicos | 24900193 |
| INPN | 717412 |
| KEW | urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:262945-1 |
| The Plant List | kew-2562108 |
| Missouri Botanical Garden | 284996 |
| Open Tree Of Life | 799605 |
| Observations.org | 211196 |
| NCBI Taxonomy | 151559 |
| Nature Serve | 2.140758 |
| IUCN Red List | 42363 |
| IPNI | 262945-1 |
| iNaturalist | 78585 |
| GBIF | 5285551 |
| Freebase | /m/02cm9b |
| FEIS | plants/tree/pinfle |
| EPPO | PIUFL |
| EOL | 1061756 |
| Elurikkus | 6290 |
| Calflora (Californian flora) | 6514 |
| US Library of Congress | sh91004253 |
| USDA GRIN | 28449 |
| Wikipedia | Pinus_flexilis |
| CMAUP | NPO23108 |
| PaleoBotany | 80161 |
Genomes (via NCBI) Top
No reference genome is available on NCBI yet. We are constantly monitoring for new data.
Scientific Literature Top
Below are displayed the latest 15 articles published in PMC (PubMed Central®) and other sources (DOI number only)!
If you wish to see all the related articles click here.
If you wish to see all the related articles click here.
| Title | Authors | Publication | Released | IDs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent and strong cold‐air pooling drives temperate forest composition | Pastore MA, Classen AT, D'Amato AW, English ME, Rand K, Foster JR, Adair EC | Ecol Evol | 01-Apr-2024 |
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| A genome sequence for the threatened whitebark pine | Neale DB, Zimin AV, Meltzer A, Bhattarai A, Amee M, Figueroa Corona L, Allen BJ, Puiu D, Wright J, De La Torre AR, McGuire PE, Timp W, Salzberg SL, Wegrzyn JL | G3 (Bethesda) | 25-Mar-2024 |
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| Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oils from Pinaceae Species | Ancuceanu R, Anghel AI, Hovaneț MV, Ciobanu AM, Lascu BE, Dinu M | Antioxidants (Basel) | 26-Feb-2024 |
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| High-density genetic linkage mapping in Sitka spruce advances the integration of genomic resources in conifers | Tumas H, Ilska JJ, Gérardi S, Laroche J, A’Hara S, Boyle B, Janes M, McLean P, Lopez G, Lee SJ, Cottrell J, Gorjanc G, Bousquet J, Woolliams JA, MacKay JJ | G3 (Bethesda) | 15-Feb-2024 |
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| Hosts and impacts of elongate hemlock scale (Hemiptera: Diaspididae): A critical review | Venette RC, Ambourn A, Aukema BH, Jetton RM, Petrice TR | Front Insect Sci | 12-Feb-2024 |
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| Estimating the influence of field inventory sampling intensity on forest landscape model performance for determining high-severity wildfire risk | Hecht H, Krofcheck DJ, Carril D, Hurteau MD | Sci Rep | 06-Feb-2024 |
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| A Pinus strobus transcription factor PsbHLH1 activates the production of pinosylvin stilbenoids in transgenic Pinus koraiensis calli and tobacco leaves | Kim YR, Han JY, Choi YE | Front Plant Sci | 18-Jan-2024 |
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| Conserved untranslated regions of multipartite viruses: Natural markers of novel viral genomic components and tags of viral evolution | Zhang S, Yang C, Qiu Y, Liao R, Xuan Z, Ren F, Dong Y, Xie X, Han Y, Wu D, Ramos-González PL, Freitas-Astúa J, Yang H, Zhou C, Cao M | Virus Evol | 12-Jan-2024 |
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| Commodity risk assessment of Corylus avellana plants from the UK | Bragard C, Baptista P, Chatzivassiliou E, Di Serio F, Jaques Miret JA, Justesen AF, MacLeod A, Magnusson CS, Milonas P, Navas‐Cortes JA, Parnell S, Potting R, Reignault PL, Stefani E, Thulke H, Van der Werf W, Civera AV, Yuen J, Zappalà L, Battisti A, Mas H, Rigling D, Faccoli M, Mikulová A, Mosbach‐Schulz O, Stergulc F, Streissl F, Gonthier P | EFSA J | 12-Jan-2024 |
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| Stone Pine (Pinus pinea L.) High-Added-Value Genetics: An Overview | Simões AS, Borges MM, Grazina L, Nunes J | Genes (Basel) | 10-Jan-2024 |
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| Annual (2023) taxonomic update of RNA-directed RNA polymerase-encoding negative-sense RNA viruses (realm Riboviria: kingdom Orthornavirae: phylum Negarnaviricota) | Kuhn JH, Abe J, Adkins S, Alkhovsky SV, Avšič-Županc T, Ayllón MA, Bahl J, Balkema-Buschmann A, Ballinger MJ, Kumar Baranwal V, Beer M, Bejerman N, Bergeron É, Biedenkopf N, Blair CD, Blasdell KR, Blouin AG, Bradfute SB, Briese T, Brown PA, Buchholz UJ, Buchmeier MJ, Bukreyev A, Burt F, Büttner C, Calisher CH, Cao M, Casas I, Chandran K, Charrel RN, Kumar Chaturvedi K, Chooi KM, Crane A, Dal Bó E, Carlos de la Torre J, de Souza WM, de Swart RL, Debat H, Dheilly NM, Di Paola N, Di Serio F, Dietzgen RG, Digiaro M, Drexler JF, Duprex WP, Dürrwald R, Easton AJ, Elbeaino T, Ergünay K, Feng G, Firth AE, Fooks AR, Formenty PB, Freitas-Astúa J, Gago-Zachert S, Laura García M, García-Sastre A, Garrison AR, Gaskin TR, Gong W, Gonzalez JP, de Bellocq J, Griffiths A, Groschup MH, Günther I, Günther S, Hammond J, Hasegawa Y, Hayashi K, Hepojoki J, Higgins CM, Hongō S, Horie M, Hughes HR, Hume AJ, Hyndman TH, Ikeda K, Jiāng D, Jonson GB, Junglen S, Klempa B, Klingström J, Kondō H, Koonin EV, Krupovic M, Kubota K, Kurath G, Laenen L, Lambert AJ, Lǐ J, Li JM, Liu R, Lukashevich IS, MacDiarmid RM, Maes P, Marklewitz M, Marshall SH, Marzano SY, McCauley JW, Mirazimi A, Mühlberger E, Nabeshima T, Naidu R, Natsuaki T, Navarro B, Navarro JA, Neriya Y, Netesov SV, Neumann G, Nowotny N, Nunes MR, Ochoa-Corona FM, Okada T, Palacios G, Pallás V, Papa A, Paraskevopoulou S, Parrish CR, Pauvolid-Corrêa A, Pawęska JT, Pérez DR, Pfaff F, Plemper RK, Postler TS, Rabbidge LO, Radoshitzky SR, Ramos-González PL, Rehanek M, Resende RO, Reyes CA, Rodrigues TC, Romanowski V, Rubbenstroth D, Rubino L, Runstadler JA, Sabanadzovic S, Sadiq S, Salvato MS, Sasaya T, Schwemmle M, Sharpe SR, Shi M, Shimomoto Y, Kavi Sidharthan V, Sironi M, Smither S, Song JW, Spann KM, Spengler JR, Stenglein MD, Takada A, Takeyama S, Tatara A, Tesh RB, Thornburg NJ, Tian X, Tischler ND, Tomitaka Y, Tomonaga K, Tordo N, Tu C, Turina M, Tzanetakis IE, Maria Vaira A, van den Hoogen B, Vanmechelen B, Vasilakis N, Verbeek M, von Bargen S, Wada J, Wahl V, Walker PJ, Waltzek TB, Whitfield AE, Wolf YI, Xia H, Xylogianni E, Yanagisawa H, Yano K, Ye G, Yuan Z, Zerbini FM, Zhang G, Zhang S, Zhang YZ, Zhao L, Økland AL | J Gen Virol | 25-Aug-2023 |
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| Presence of p25alpha-Domain in Seed Plants (Spermatophyta): Microbial/Animal Contaminations and/or Orthologs | Orosz F | Life (Basel) | 30-Jul-2023 |
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| Lost in the bloom: DNA-PKcs in green plants | Kumar KR | Front Plant Sci | 28-Jul-2023 |
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| What matters most? Assessment of within-canopy factors influencing the needle microbiome of the model conifer, Pinus radiata | Addison S, Armstrong C, Wigley K, Hartley R, Wakelin S | Environ Microbiome | 30-May-2023 |
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| Growth, drought response, and climate‐associated genomic structure in whitebark pine in the Sierra Nevada of California | van Mantgem PJ, Milano ER, Dudney J, Nesmith JC, Vandergast AG, Zald HS | Ecol Evol | 17-May-2023 |
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Phytochemical Profile Top
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Collections Top
| In private collections | 0 |
| In public collections | 0 |