This stately pine species is native to the mountains of Baja California up the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California & a little of western Nevada to southwest Oregon on dry mountain slopes with nutrient poor soils to moist soiled meadows and forests. It is a hard pine that has bluish-green, stiff needles 6 to 9 inches long in bundles of 3. It bears huge pine seed cones of 5 to 15 inches long with inward scale tips and incurved sharp prickles on each scale. Its mature bark is yellowish-brown to cinnamon elongated, irregular plates separated by deep fissures. On a warm day the bark gives off a fragrance like vanilla or bananas or pineapple. It is very similar to Ponderosa Pine, but tends to be smaller with darker needles and bark and larger cones. It grows about 2 feet/year and lives around 500 years or more. Back in 1970 I saw some of this tree species at Sequoia National Park in California that I recognized way back then by the huge cones. These cones are harvested for decorations and the seed is eaten by birds and small mammals. I found several trees planted in the Conifer Collection at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois in November 2019. One big one all by itself in the open was about 60 feet high, but had a poor quality crown. Several other ones planted with other conifers around were looking good at about 25 to 30 feet high. Jeffery Pine must be able to grow in neutral pH soils as the silt-clay loam soils of Morton Arboretum have a pH range of 6.5 to 7.1 at the surface. I don't know of this species being used in regular landscapes from the nursery trade in eastern North America; though, the Rocky Mountain Ponderosa Pine is used a little bit and does well. There still are some fine-looking Ponderosa Pines growing the the Chicago, IL area. Seven Oaks Native Plant Nursery in Albany, Oregon sells small trees in 3 to 5 gallon containers and mentions that Jeffery Pine is a little prettier and denser growing than Ponderosa Pine and is liked a little better for western landscapes. The tree was named after a Scottish botanist of John Jeffery of the 19th century who collected a specimen for the Oregon Botanical Association of Edinburgh.

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