The pinon tree is a lovely pine species that produces delicious, edible pine nuts. It is native to the southern US and has been used as a staple food for centuries. Not all pine trees are created equally. A particularly interesting stand out is the pinon pine, also referred to as pinyon pine or piñon pine. This pine tree produces edible nuts. Most pinyon trees have yellow-green needles and produce pine cones over the course of their very long lifetime. Some pinyon pine trees have been reported to live for up to 600 years, according to the US Forest Service!
The edible pine nuts of single-leaf pinyon, two-needle pinyon, and Colorado pinyon pine taste almost cream-like in flavor, with the oiliness of macadamia and just the slightest hint of a pine-like flavor. The pinyon pine seeds are roasted and eaten as a snack and are commonly used as an ingredient in the cuisine of New Mexico, which calls pinyon pine its state tree.
During pine nut harvest periods, you can often find them for sale at roadside stands that pop up in states where these pines grow naturally, particularly in the Great Basin. Pine nuts have also been a staple food of Native Americans for centuries and can be found on reservations across the four corners region in southwestern North America and Mexico.
The one drawback of the piñon pine is that it can be difficult to grow; they have a very specific and set range where they produce cones filled with those delicious pine nuts. Pinus edulis is native to four states in the US – Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. While they can be grown outside that range, that’s where they thrive best – and that’s also why seed harvest rights are almost exclusively Native American-controlled on this tree species, as they’re a wild-growing tree in reservation country.There are different varieties, such as Colorado pinyon and Mexican pinyon, and within these varieties, there are different types as well. There are two main types of pinyon pines: the single-leaf pinyon and the two-needle pinyon (also known as two-needle piñon). As you can probably guess, the single-leaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) generally has a single pine needle protruding from each growth point. In contrast, the two-needle pinyon has two needles at each growth point.