Pinus monophylla – “Singleleaf Pinyon Pine”

Family: Pine (Pinaceae)
Bloom Period: Non-flowering, cone-bearing
Form: Small to medium-sized tree
Habitat: Slopes below 7000 feet (2100 m)
Leaves: Needles
Translation: “Pinus” is the ancient Latin name for the Pine; “monophylla” is Greek for “one leaf,” which refers to the single needle that grows from each node. Most other pines have two or more needles per node.
Notes: According to evidence found in ancient pack-rat middens, these trees have been growing in the area of Joshua Tree National Park for at least the past 47,000 years. Photos show pollen-bearing male cone (above right) and mature female cones (below right).
Native American Uses:Pine-nuts were central to the diet of many Native Americans throughout the West. Roasting and steaming were used to remove the thin but indigestible shells and the nuts were either stored whole or ground into meal and made into porridge. Nuts were also stored raw for processing later. The Cahuilla also used the nuts as baby food and to make a beverage, and the Havasupai spiced cooking meat with sprigs of needles.

The pitch and resin were medicinally valuable: Cahuilla girls made a cream to prevent sunburn; the Gosiute made a decoction for internal parasites; the Havasupai, Hopi, Kawaiisu, and Shoshone made a poultice for wounds, the Havasupai doing the same for their horses; the Hopi put it on the forehead to protect from sorcery and burned it to cleanse the family of a deceased individual; the Kawaiisu gave it to women to stop menstruation and to adolescent girls “to keep youthful and increase life span” (Moerman); the Paiute used a heated poultice of it to treat sore muscles, chest congestion, boils, and to draw out slivers, chewed it for sore throats, applied it powdered to syphilis sores, and drank a decoction of it for diarrhea, nausea, rheumatism, colds, fevers, influenza, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and as a tonic for women who had just given birth; and the Shoshone used a heated poultice for sore muscles, sciatica, wounds, and insect bites, to draw out slivers and treat pneumonia, drank a decoction for nausea, colds, coughs, fevers, kidney health, smallpox, and venereal disease, burned it and inhaled the smoke for colds, and made an antiseptic wash, along with the needles, for rashes including measles.

In the categories of crafts and construction: the Cahuilla, Havasupai, Hopi and Kawaiisu used the pitch to mend and waterproof pottery and baskets, including drinking cup basketry; the Cahuilla used the needles and roots in basketry, the bark as roofing material, the wood for fuel and the pitch to affix arrow points to shafts; the Havasupai used the wood for construction, fuel, and tool-making; the Hopi employed the pitch as glue for making mosaics out of turquoise; and Kawaiisu children decorated their earlobes with the nut shells.
Animal Associations: Nuts eaten by many mammals, including the White-Tailed Antelope Ground Squirrel, the Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel, the Rock Squirrel, the Panamint Chipmunk, the Desert Woodrat, and the aptly-named Pinyon Mouse. Nuts also eaten by many birds including the Mourning Dove and Pinyon Jay. The needles are eaten by the Bushy-Tailed Woodrat and the larvae of the Velda Pinemoth.