Trees to 30m; trunk to 0. diam., slender, straight; crown conic, becoming rounded to irregular. Bark gray, aging red-brown, furrowed, with narrow, irregular, scaly ridges. Branches spreading-ascending; twigs slender, pale red-brown, puberulous or glabrous, sometimes glaucous, aging gray or gray-brown, smooth. Buds ellipsoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous. Leaves 5 per fascicle, spreading to ascending-upcurved, persisting 3--5 years, 4-- ´ 0.6--1mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, dark green to blue-green, abaxial surface without evident stomatal lines, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by narrow stomatal lines, margins sharp, razorlike and entire to finely serrulate, apex narrowly acute to short-subulate; sheath 1.5--2cm, shed early. Pollen cones cylindric, ca. 6--10mm, pale yellow-brown. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, pendent, symmetric, lance-cylindric before opening, broadly lance-cylindric when open, 15--25cm, creamy brown to light yellow-brown, stalks to 6cm; apophyses somewhat thickened, strongly cross-keeled, tip reflexed; umbo terminal, low. Seeds ovoid; body 10--13mm, red-brown, essentially wingless. 2 n =24.
Mixed conifer-oak woodland, often forming small areas of pure stands, favouring north-facing slopes and the sides of mountain streams, also on arid to moist summit elevations; at elevations from 1,900-3,500 metres.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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