Smooth-bark Mexican pine

Description

Pinus pseudostrobus, known in English as the smooth-bark Mexican pine and in Spanish as chamite or pacingo, is a tree endemic to Mexico. It is 8 to 25 m tall, dense and round top, the bark is brown and fissured and smooth when young. It grows between 1300–3250 m. From 26° to 15° north latitude, from Sinaloa, Mexico to El Salvador and Honduras. It occurs within a rainfalls regime mostly in summer. A stand of about 15 fully mature Mexican pines is in Imperial County, California, at the Palo Verde County Park, in a narrow strip of land between Hwy 78 and the Colorado River. It has been introduced in New Zealand near sea level and has done well.