Table 1.
Cone characters in thirteen subsections of Pinus.
| Taxon | Mature cones | Seed scale | Umbo |
Geographic distribution | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Prickle (mucro) | ||||
| Subgenus Pinus (seed scale with a sealing band) | |||||
| Section Trifoliae (NA) | |||||
| Subsect. Australes | Open, closed | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, centromucronate | NA & Mex |
| Subsect. Contortae | Closed, open | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, centromucronate | W & E NA & Mex |
| Subsect. Attenuatae | Closed, irregularly shaped | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, centromucronate | Cal. & Baja Cal. |
| Subsect. Ponderosae | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, centromucronate | W NA & Mex |
| Subsect. Sabinianae | Open, large | Thick | Dorsal | Variable (spiny), centromucronate | Cal. |
| Section Pinus (Laurasia & Tethyan) | |||||
| Subsect. Pinus | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, excentromucronate | Eurasia & E NA |
| Subsect. Pinaster | Open (closed) | Thick | Dorsal | Absent | Mediterranean (Himalayas) |
| Subgenus Strobus (seed scale without a sealing band) | |||||
| Section Quinquefoliae (Laurasia) | |||||
| Subsect. Strobus | Open | Thin | Terminal | Absent | NA, Mex, Eurasia |
| Subsect. Krempfianae | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Absent | Central Vietnam |
| Subsect. Gerardianae | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Variable (mucro)/absent | E Asia & NW Himalayas |
| Section Parrya (NA) | |||||
| Subsect. Cembroides | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Absent, tectoid, parvimueronate | W NA & Mex |
| Subsect. Balfourianae | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Variable, erectoexcentro-mucronate | W NA |
| Subsect. Nelsoniae | Open | Thick | Dorsal | Absent | Mex |
Morphological data of extant groups are sourced from Klaus (1980, 1989), Frankis (2002), Gernandt et al. (2005), Farjon (2021), Jin et al. (2021) and the present investigation. All abbreviations for the geographic ranges are the same as in Fig. 1. Cal., California.