Description: Large tree with straight axis and open, conical or columnar crown of spreading branches and with large cones. Both bark and twigs give off odour of lemon or vanilla when crushed.

Height: 25-40 m, sometimes up to 60m.

Diameter: 0.6-1.2 m, sometimes much larger.

Needles: evergreen, persisting five to eight years; three in bundle; 12-26 cm by 2 mm. Stout, stiff; light grey-green or blue-green, with broad white lines on all surfaces. Sheath persistent.

Bark: purplish-brown, thick, furrowed into narrow scaly plates.

Twigs: stout, hairless, grey-green with whitish to violet bloom; becoming orange-brown, smooth. Buds conical or ovoid-cylindric, pointed, red-brown, scales free at tips, slightly resinous, 3 cm.

Cones: pollen cones 20-35mm, yellow to yellow- or purple-brown. Seed cones 13-30 cm long; conical or egg-shaped, light reddish-brown, almost stalkless; to 0.5 Kg first year; ripen in September of second year, opening and shedding at maturity October-November, leaving a few cone-scales on the twig; cone-scales numerous, raised and keeled, ending in long, bent-back prickle. Seeds about 12 mm with wing up to 4.5 cm and having a very high germination rate

Habitat: Dry slopes of mountains, especially from lava flows and granite; best developed on steep, well-drained soils; often forming pure stands and with other conifers. Fairly shade-tolerant, though cannot compete with White Fir in high rainfall areas. Grows under more extreme conditions than Ponderosa, in frost-hollows and on exposed ridges, being more frost-resistant when young. Jeffrey Pine occurs more frequently at higher altitudes and on the eastern side of the Sierra. Both species occur in (and pretty much define) the California plant community Yellow Pine Forest (m14).

Range: SW Oregon south through Sierra Nevada (especially eastern slopes) to W Nevada and S California; also N Baja California; mostly at 1800-2750 m, less frequently down to 1000m and up to 3000m.

At one time referred to Pinus ponderosa as a variety, but now shown to be a distinct and stable species differing in chemical composition of the bark as well as bigger cones, the bark and other morphological characteristics. The odour of crushed twigs defies exact description. The scent has been likened not only to lemons and vanilla, but also to violets, pineapples and apples. The species was named for John Jeffrey, the 19th century Scottish botanical explorer, who found it in 1852 when collecting seeds and plants for the Oregon Association in Oregon and California and introduced it to the UK the same year. Not particularly long-lived in cultivation, though often 400-500 years in the wild. It has reached 39.6m in 130 years at Scone Palace, Perth.

Information: Audubon (80), Rushforth (87), Bean III, Mitchell (88), Leathart (91)

Source: Seeds from B&T World Seeds

Purchased: arrived April 1998

Planted: 18 seeds sown on 1998.04.12-15. First germination was neatly chewed off by slug, three further germinations all survive and are making reasonable progress. After our experience with Ponderosa Pine, we sowed these one seed to a pot using degradeable peat pots, and planted these into much bigger pots as soon as a successful germination occurred. Eventually, we had three seedlings from the first year, and one more which germinated a year later from a new sowing of stored seed. All were allowed to grow on for some time in bigger pots, and three were planted 2003-04-27.

Progress: As much more recent plantings than the majority of our trees, there hasn't been much progress yet, but all three looked healthy in spring 2004 when enough grass was cleared to actually find them. On 2004.09.27 their heights are all close to 0.75m.

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