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Coulter pine

Pinus coulteri · Pinaceae · all Pinus records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 0 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Global; New Zealand
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in CA.
Native range: Current cited native range in CA.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Documented minimum 8a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri) — Photo: (c) Henrik Kibak, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
USDA hardiness: Minimum 8a; upper limit not documented
Mature height: ~80 ft
Water need: moderate
Current cited native range: CA
Grows in: CA
Rated in: Global; New Zealand
Uses: ornamental
Family: Pinaceae
Evidence: 12 cited sources

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

1

exact source area

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

1 native source area · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04

California (CA)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics · record PICO3 · PLANTS Help Document 2022; characteristics cache retrieved 2026-08-23 · as of 2026-08-26

Minimum 8a · no upper limit documented · half zone precision · derived containing band

Exact source measurement: 12°F; mapped only to its containing half-zone.

Source taxon: Pinus coulteri · source identifier match.

Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 15442, Temperature, Minimum (°F).

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Low Flammability Plants directory — Fire and Emergency New Zealand (plant flammability testing at Lincoln University) · 2026 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: lincoln-nz-tree

“Moderate/high flammability”

Moderate/high flammability classification.

Listed without a rating (11)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

11 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “ignition frequency (%): 75” · score 75 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 1457; Ignitability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 552” · score 552 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 1651; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “burning duration (s): 80.8” · score 80.8 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 1845; Sustainability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “estimated burnt biomass (%): 22.5” · score 22.5 (FLAMITS — estimated burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 2039; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND. Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
- “time to flaming (s): 7.2” · score 7.2 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 4717; Ignitability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Hachmi2011-1; sampling ND. Primary study Hachmi2011: Hachmi, M. H., Sesbou, A., Benjelloun, H., El Handouz, N., & Bouanane, F. (2011). A Simple Technique to Estimate the Flammability Index of Moroccan Forest Fuels. Journal of Combustion, 2011, 1-11.
- “flame height (cm): 14” · score 14 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 4769; Combustibility measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Hachmi2011-1; sampling ND. Primary study Hachmi2011: Hachmi, M. H., Sesbou, A., Benjelloun, H., El Handouz, N., & Bouanane, F. (2011). A Simple Technique to Estimate the Flammability Index of Moroccan Forest Fuels. Journal of Combustion, 2011, 1-11.
- “burning duration (s): 14.1” · score 14.1 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 4770; Sustainability measurement; plant part twigs; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Hachmi2011-1; sampling ND. Primary study Hachmi2011: Hachmi, M. H., Sesbou, A., Benjelloun, H., El Handouz, N., & Bouanane, F. (2011). A Simple Technique to Estimate the Flammability Index of Moroccan Forest Fuels. Journal of Combustion, 2011, 1-11.
- “flame height (cm): 67.7” · score 67.7 (FLAMITS — flame height (cm))
  
  FLAMITS record 15677; Combustibility measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2022-9; sampling ND. Primary study Varner2022: Varner, J. M., Shearman, T. M., Kane, J. M., Banwell, E., Jules, E., & Stambaugh, M. (2022). Understanding flammability and bark thickness in the genus Pinus using a phylogenetic approach. Scientific Reports, 12, 7384.
- “flaming duration (s): 82.4” · score 82.4 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 15678; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2022-9; sampling ND. Primary study Varner2022: Varner, J. M., Shearman, T. M., Kane, J. M., Banwell, E., Jules, E., & Stambaugh, M. (2022). Understanding flammability and bark thickness in the genus Pinus using a phylogenetic approach. Scientific Reports, 12, 7384.
- “smouldering duration (s): 328.6” · score 328.6 (FLAMITS — smouldering duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 15679; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2022-9; sampling ND. Primary study Varner2022: Varner, J. M., Shearman, T. M., Kane, J. M., Banwell, E., Jules, E., & Stambaugh, M. (2022). Understanding flammability and bark thickness in the genus Pinus using a phylogenetic approach. Scientific Reports, 12, 7384.
- “burnt biomass (%): 92” · score 92 (FLAMITS — burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 15680; Consumability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Varner2022-9; sampling ND. Primary study Varner2022: Varner, J. M., Shearman, T. M., Kane, J. M., Banwell, E., Jules, E., & Stambaugh, M. (2022). Understanding flammability and bark thickness in the genus Pinus using a phylogenetic approach. Scientific Reports, 12, 7384.

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Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Pinus coulteri (Coulter pine). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/pinus-coulteri/. Last verified 2026-08-23.