Big-Cone Pine (Pinus coulteri)

Family: Pinaceae | Edibility: Choice Edible (4/5)

Bloom Color: Yellow. Main Bloom Time: Early spring, Late spring, Mid spring. Form: Oval, Pyramidal.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Nuts/Seeds

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring, Winter

Flavor & Culinary Uses

rich seed has a delicious taste with a slightly resinous flavour, it used to be gathered in large quantities by the local Indians who ate it as a staple food. — Seed - raw or cooked.; Large, individual seeds are up to 15mm x 8mm.; The oil-rich seed has a delicious taste with a slightly resinous flavour, it used to be gathered in large quantities by the local Indians who ate it as a staple food.; A vanillin flavouring is obtained as a by-product of other resins that are released from the pulpwood.

Habitat & North American Range

Scattered singly or in small groves in coniferous forests on dry rocky slopes and ridges to 2000 metres in the coastal mountains of California and N.W. Mexico. (Zone 8, Zone 9, Zone 10)