Pinus flexilisE.James

Limber PineRocky Mountain White Pinelimber pine

WFO wfo-0000481474 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pinus flexilis, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. a Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / 2022-06-09 / obs. 204749217
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. b Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202345823
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Henrik Kibak
fig. c Henrik Kibak, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201124696
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. d Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172759111
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. e Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172564750
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Caleb Catto
fig. f Caleb Catto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 171245723
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Will Kuhn
fig. g Will Kuhn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170125718
Pinus flexilis, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. h Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170989338

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01268882
Filed as
Pinus flexilis E.James
Det. by
D. E. Atha 2011-01-01
Collected
D. E. Atha 2011-02-07
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 18 botanical countries

Regions where Pinus flexilis is native: Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOregonSouth DakotaTexasUtahWyoming
Native distribution of Pinus flexilis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oregon ORE
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,941 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -17.5 °C -12.6 °C -7.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.4 °C 23.3 °C 28.4 °C
Annual rainfall 316 mm 538 mm 999 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 25 mm 70 mm 170 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,941 research-grade observations of Pinus flexilis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 13 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Apinus flexilis (E.James) Rydb.
  • Pinus ayacahuite var. reflexa (Engelm.) Voss
  • Pinus flexilis subsp. alpina (Silba) Silba
  • Pinus flexilis subsp. callahanii (Silba) Silba
  • Pinus flexilis subsp. reflexa (Engelm.) A.E.Murray
  • Pinus flexilis var. alpina Silba
  • Pinus flexilis var. callahanii Silba
  • Pinus flexilis var. macrocarpa Engelm.
  • Pinus flexilis var. megalocarpa Sudw.
  • Pinus flexilis var. serrulata Engelm.
  • Pinus lambertiana var. brevifolia Hook.
  • Pinus novaemexicana P.Landry
  • Pinus reflexa (Engelm.) Engelm.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.