Phylogeny

Nomenclature follows Hickman 1993.  Phylogeny extends the work of  Little and Critchfield 1969.

Subsection Balfourianae of Genus Pinus contains three species:

  1. Foxtail Pine - Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf. 
  2. Western Bristlecone Pine - Pinus longaeva D. Bailey 
  3. Bristlecone Pine - Pinus aristata Engelm.

Ron Mastrogiuseppe found consistent differences between the northern and southern populations of Foxtail Pine (Mastroguiseppe & Mastroguiseppe 1980).  This work culminated in splitting the species into two subspecies:

  1. Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf. ssp austrina Mastrogiuseppe & Mastrogiuseppe
  2. Pinus balfouriana Grev. & Balf. ssp balfouriana

Preliminary cladistic analysis (Rourke 1986) suggests that Western Bristlecone Pine is most closely related to Foxtail Pine.

Last updated April 15, 2001