Torrey Pine Care

The Torrey pine, Pinus torreyana, is a rare pine species in the United States. It is a critically endangered species growing only in the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, coastal northern San Diego county, and on Santa Rosa Island. It is endemic to the coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion in the U.S. state of California.

Pinus torreyana is a broad, open-crowned pine tree growing to 8–17 meters (26–56 ft) tall in the wild, with 25–30 centimeters (9.8–11.8 in) long leaves ('needles') in groups of five. The cones are stout and heavy, typically 8–15 cm (3.1–5.9 in) long and broad, and contain large, hard-shelled, but edible, pine nuts. Like all pines, it has its needles clustered into what is known as a 'fascicle' – this fascicle generally always has a fixed number of needles for each pine species; in the Torrey pine there are five needles in each fascicle.

Like all pines, it has strobili (singular: strobilus), structures that function as a flower but looks like a small cone, which for the Torrey pine looks like a yellow bud in a male strobilus and looks like a small red cone in a female strobilus.