Editing Pinus remota

{{Short description|Species of conifer}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Pinus remota, Elephant Mountain WMA, Brewster County, Texas 02.jpg
| image_caption = Cone
| image2 = Pinus remota, Sierra Rica, Manuel Benavides, Chihuahua, Mexico 1.jpg
| image2_caption = Habit
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| status_ref = <ref name=iucn>{{Cite journal | author = Farjon, A. | title = ''Pinus remota'' | journal = [[The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species]] | volume = 2013 | page = e.T42409A2978032 | publisher = [[IUCN]] | date = 2013 | url = http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/42409/0 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42409A2978032.en | access-date = 15 December 2017| doi-access = free }}</ref>
| genus = Pinus
| display_parents = 3
| parent = Pinus subsect. Cembroides
| species = remota
| authority = (Little) D. K. Bailey & F. G. Hawksworth
}}

'''''Pinus remota''''', commonly known as the '''Texas pinyon''' or '''papershell pinyon''', is a [[pine]] in the [[pinyon pine]] group, native to southwestern [[Texas]] and northeastern [[Mexico]].  It can be distinguished from other pinyon species by its thin-walled seeds, which made it especially attractive as a food to [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] and [[Mexicans]] living where it grew.  Spanish explorer [[Cabeza de Vaca]] noted that the papershell pinon was an important food for the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] in 1536.

==Description==
''Pinus remota'' is a small [[tree]] or large [[shrub]], reaching 3–10 m tall and with a trunk [[diameter]] of up to 40&nbsp;cm. The bark is thick, rough, and scaly. The [[leaf|leaves]] ('needles') are in mixed pairs and threes (mostly pairs), slender, 3–5&nbsp;cm long, and dull gray-green, with [[stomata]] on both inner and outer surfaces. The [[conifer cone|cones]] are squat globose, 3–5&nbsp;cm long and broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-buff when 18–20 months old, with only a small number of thin scales, with typically 5-12 fertile scales.

The cones open to 4–6&nbsp;cm broad when mature, holding the [[seed]]s on the scales after opening. The seeds measure 10–12&nbsp;mm long, with a very thin shell, a white [[endosperm]], and a [[vestigial]] 1–2&nbsp;mm wing; they are dispersed by the [[Woodhouse's scrub jay]], which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored seeds are not used and able to grow into new trees.

==Taxonomy==
Texas pinyon was previously included in [[Mexican pinyon]], only being discovered as distinct in 1966 when US [[botanist]] [[Elbert L. Little]] noticed that the seed shells of some pinyons in Texas were very thin compared to many others. He treated it as a [[variety (biology)|variety]] of Mexican pinyon, [[Pinus cembroides]] var. ''remota''. Subsequent research found other differences, and it is now usually treated as a distinct [[species]], probably more closely related to the [[Colorado pinyon]] ''P. edulis'', which shares thin seed shells and needles mostly in pairs. Texas pinyon differs from both Mexican and [[Colorado]] pinyons in the very small, recessed umbo on the cone scales (larger and knob-like on other pinyons).

==Distribution and habitat==
The range is in western [[Texas]], United States, on the south edge of the [[Edwards Plateau]] and the hills between [[Fort Stockton, Texas|Fort Stockton]] and [[Presidio, Texas|Presidio]], and in northeastern [[Mexico]], mainly in [[Coahuila]] but also just into [[Chihuahua (state)|Chihuahua]] and [[Nuevo León]]. It occurs at low to moderate altitudes, from 450–700 m on the Edwards Plateau and from 1200–1800 m in the rest of its range. It is scarce, with small, scattered populations usually on dry, rocky sites and [[Arroyo (watercourse)|arroyos]] where bare rock lowers the likelihood of [[wildfire]] spreading easily.

== Uses ==
The edible seeds are occasionally collected like those of other pinyons, and sold as [[pine nut]]s. However, in its barren, dry habitat, infrequent and small crops are normal, reducing its economic value. It is occasionally planted as an [[ornamental tree]], where its remarkable tolerance of drought and even semi-desert conditions makes it valuable in hot, dry areas.

==The papershell piñón and Cabeza de Vaca==
Pinus remota has importance in determining the route of Spanish explorer [[Cabeza de Vaca]], the first European to explore [[Texas]] and the northern part of [[Mexico]]. Writing an account of his experiences, Cabeza de Vaca said that in 1535 the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indians]] of the region through which he was passing gave him and his companions pine nuts to eat which were "better than those of Castile [Spain], because they have very thin shells."<ref>{{cite journal | last = Olson | first = Donald W. | display-authors=etal | title = Piñon Pines and the Route of Cabeza de Vaca | journal = Southwestern Historical Quarterly | date = October 1997 | page = 177 }}</ref>
[[File:Expedition Cabeza de Vaca Karte.png|thumb|right|250px|Route of Cabeza de Vaca, 1528-1536, as proposed by Alex D. Krieger.]]
In attempting to determine the route followed by Cabeza de Vaca from near the area of [[Galveston, Texas]] on the [[Gulf of Mexico]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]] coast of Mexico, several scholars, notably Cleve Hallenbeck in 1940, believed that the statement by Cabeza de Vaca referred to the seeds of [[Pinus edulis]], the Colorado piñón, which is found in the mountains of southern New Mexico and adjacent Texas—but not in northeastern Mexico.  The Mexican piñón ([[Pinus cembroides]]) found in Mexico has thick shells, rather than the thin shells described by Cabeza de Vaca. Therefore, Hallenbeck concluded on the basis of the range of piñón species that Cabeza de Vaca had traversed Texas westward from near Galveston to southernmost New Mexico and crossed the [[Rio Grande]] river near [[El Paso, Texas]].

To the contrary, Alex D. Krieger in a [[doctoral dissertation]] (1961) proposed instead that Cabeza De Vaca had traversed the coast of Texas, crossed the [[Rio Grande]] into Mexico and turned northwest, passing near present-day [[Monclova, Mexico]] and proceeding through Mexico to meet the Rio Grande again near present-day [[Presidio, Texas]].<ref>Chipman, Donald E. "In Search of Cabeza de Vaca's Route across Texas: An Historiographical Survey". (Oct 1987) ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'', http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/colonial/cabezadevaca.pdf, accessed 28 July 2016</ref> Krieger's trans-Mexican route for Cabeza de Vaca was dismissed by proponents of a trans-Texas route because no piñón with thin shelled seeds was known to be native to northern Mexico.<ref>Olson, et al., pp 178-180</ref>

However, in 1966, botanist [[Elbert L. Little]] first described a subspecies of the Mexican piñón with "thin shelled seeds" and in 1979 the thin-shelled piñón was proposed to be considered as a separate species with the name ''Pinus remota'' or papershell piñón.  In 1996, scholars traveled to the Monclova, Mexico area and collected specimens of the papershell piñón, thus proving that Cabeza de Vaca might have encountered thin-shelled piñón seeds in Mexico as well as in Texas. The trans-Mexico route of Cabeza de Vaca, proposed by Krieger, now has the support of many scholars.<ref>Dolan et al., pp. 184-186</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.pinetum.org/cones/PNDucampopinus.htm Photo of cones (scroll half-way down)]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q2916933}}

[[Category:Pinus|remota]]
[[Category:Trees of Northern America]]
[[Category:Flora of the Southwestern United States]]
[[Category:Least concern plants]]