Conifers to Replace Pinon Trees

Conifers that do well in replacing pinons.

  • Topics: Conifers, Trees & Shrubs
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: conifers, trees, pinon, Trees
  • Date: August 2003

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A writer friend of mine, Elaine Pinkerton, planned to have an outdoors writers’ retreat at her house this month. Her patio used to be a wonderful place to relax—shady, cool. But this summer she had to cut the surrounding Pinons. They’d all died.

Due to the continuing drought that stresses trees then makes them susceptible to disease, more and more the Pinons, these icons of our area, are dying off. And it’s mostly due to the Ips beetle, commonly called the bark beetle. But take heart. According to Dave Ferguson, one of the curators at the Albuquerque Botanical Garden, the beetle is host- specific to pinons.

“People are afraid the Ips beetle will attack their other conifers,” he said. “Now, there may be isolated exceptions, but this beetle prefers Pinon trees.” An entomologist, Ferguson says a tree that could attract the Ips is the Paper Bark Pine, an Asian relative to the Pinon pine.

So if you’ve needed to remove dead pinons and want to replace them with other conifers, it’s a safe bet that whatever you replace them with won’t be attacked by the Ips.

Following is a partial list developed by our nursery staff. The complete list is on one of our handouts and tells the soil conditions and water requirements of the trees. Ask the staff for further help in determining what conifers would be best for replacing pinons.

Cypress

  • Cupressus arizonica ‘Blue Pyramid’ (Blue Pyramid Arizona Cypress): grows to 24’ high and 12’ wide, low water, adaptable to most soils, wind and heat tolerant. Blue gray foliage.
  • Cupressus arizonica ‘Blue Ice’ (Blue Ice Compact Arizona Cypress): grows to 15’ high and 14’ wide, low water, tolerates wind. Blue foliage.

Fir

  • Abies concolor (White Fir): grows to 40’ high and 20’ wide, moderate water, adaptable to most soils. Whitish needles.

Juniper

  • Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain Juniper): grows to 30’ high and 20’ wide, low water, hardy, native.
  • Juniperus scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’ (Skyrocket Juniper): grows to 18’ high and 5’ wide, low water, hardy.

Pine

  • Pinus leucodermis (Bosnian Pine): grows to 25’ high and 10’ wide, low water, hardy.
  • Pinus nigra (Austrian Pine): grows to 30’ high and 25’ wide, low water, variably shaped, hardy.
  • Pinus sylvestris (Scotch Pine): grows to 50’ high and 30’ wide, low water, hardy.

Spruce

  • Picea glauca ‘Densata’ (Black Hills Spruce): grows to 25’ high and 15’ wide, moderate water, well drained soils.