Photo: Tomás Esparza — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Survives zone 7 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Mexican pinyon produces small, thick-shelled seeds (10–12 mm) that are the principal wild-harvested pine nut of Mexico's high desert — gathered, roasted, and ground into bread or eaten straight, much as Colorado pinyon is used farther north.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Nut
- Ripens
- Autumn (cones)
- Mature size
- Small tree 5–12 m
- Light
- Full sun — cone/seed set needs sun
- Soil pH
- 5.0–7.0
- Environment
- Semi-arid montane
- Native range
- Mountains of Mexico, widely along the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, and the borderlands of west Texas, southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, at 1,600–2,400 m in dry piñon-juniper woodland.
- Status
- Both wild and cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 10+ yrs
- Growth speed
- Slow — roughly 15–30 cm/year.
- Spacing
- 500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Needles typically in fascicles of two or three (occasionally four), slender, 3–6 cm long, dull yellowish-green.
- Root system
- Develops a deep taproot suited to arid, rocky ground; young plants resent transplanting once this taproot is established.
- Fruit description
- Cones are small (3–4 cm closed, opening to 4–5 cm), ripening yellow-brown over about 18–20 months. Seeds are large for the tree's size (10–12 mm) with thick shells and only a minimal 2 mm wing.
- Propagation
- By seed — chill in moist sand or a damp paper towel in the refrigerator for about 6–8 weeks (30–60 days) to break dormancy before sowing; grafting is not commercially practiced for this species.
- Pollination
- Monoecious, wind-pollinated — plant more than one
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Adapted to naturally low-fertility, rocky or alkaline soils and needs no routine fertilizing in the ground; a mycorrhizal association at planting matters more than feeding, and overfeeding can push soft, rust-prone growth.
Growing tips. A small, slow-growing tree (8–20 m tall) well suited to hot, dry sites; young trees need regular watering for the first two years while the deep taproot establishes, after which it is very drought tolerant. Cones take about 2 years to mature.
Grow journal
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