Pinon is a native to high plains, mesas, plateaus (such as the immense Colorado plateau), canyons, foothills and lower mountain slopes, the pinion pine requires little water, produces wonderful cones (both male and female) and the nuts tend to be large for pine, and quite edible and tasty.
In fact, the nuts have been used for food for centuries by Native Americans and later by the Spanish. Now, the nuts are used in a variety of recipes, including Middle Eastern dishes.
Annual harvest of wild pinyon nuts exceeds a million pounds. Driving through the Southwest, one can find many roadside stands selling pinyon nuts, which have been collected in the wild.
The nuts are also a great source of food for songbirds, quail, squirrels, chipmunks, black bear and mule deer.
The extremely sticky pitch or sap was used for glue and to coat baskets by Puebloans and other Native Americans. The Navajo burn the resin to create fumes to cure head colds and the Hopis use the resin to waterproof and repair pottery.
The wood is highly prized for firewood all over the Southwest and West. The wood is also used to construct latillas and "coyote" fences, among other uses.
The gnarled trunk and branches of the pinon is exceptionally beautiful, and many southwesterners have been known to sit for hours under one in the heat of the day.
There is an especially attractive, uncommonly large, and presumably very old pinion growing in the arroyo behind my home. Last spring, we discovered a nest of barn owls, complete with fledglings, nestled among its branches.
In fact, the wild trees provide cover for a large number of desert residents. Robins, sparrows, mockingbirds, thrushes, owls and hawks nest in the thick cover provided by the short needles. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and even coyotes live in excavated burrows beneath the branches.
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