Pinus cembroides, also known as pinyon pine, Mexican pinyon, Mexican nut pine, and Mexican stone pine, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to western North America. It grows in areas with low levels of rainfall and its range extends southwards from Arizona, Texas and New Mexico in the United States into Mexico. It typically grows at altitudes between . It is a small pine growing to about with a trunk diameter of up to . The seeds are large and form part of the diet of the Mexican jay and Abert's squirrel. They are also collected for human consumption, being the most widely used pine nut in Mexico. This is a common pine with a wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern". Distribution The range extends from westernmost Texas, United States (where it is restricted to the Chisos and Davis Mountains), south through much of Mexico, occurring widely along the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental ranges, and more rarely in the eastern Eje Volcánico Transversal range. It lives in areas with little rainfall, which fluctuates between to , the subspecies orizabensis (Pinus orizabensis) is found farther south in the state of Veracruz. There is also a disjunct population in the Sierra de la Laguna of southern Baja California Sur. It occurs at moderate altitudes, mostly from to . Description Pinus cembroides is a small to medium-size tree, reaching to tall and with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is dark brown, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk. The leaves ('needles') are in mixed pairs and threes, slender, to long, and dull yellowish green, with stomata on both inner and outer surfaces. The cones are globose, to long and broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-brown when 18–20 months old, with only a small number of thick scales, with typically 5-12 fertile scales. The cones open to to broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening. The seeds are to long, with a thick shell, a pink endosperm, and a vestigial wing; they are dispersed by the Mexican jay, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a major food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored