Trees to 50 m tall; trunk straight or ± tortuous, to 1 m d.b.h.; bark dark gray or grayish brown; crown broadly ovoid, finally umbrellalike; branches spreading or spreading-ascending; 1st-year branchlets brown to yellowish brown, slender; winter buds pinkish brown or reddish brown, cylindric, ovoid-ellipsoid, or ovoid, 1-1.5 cm × 5-6 mm, ± resinous, scales white or long white fringed at margin. Needles 2 per bundle, not or slightly twisted, 4.5-17 cm × 0.6-1 mm, resin canals 2-7(or 8), median, rarely also marginal, base with sheath 0.5-1.4 cm, margin serrulate, with 26-57 teeth per cm in middle part of needle. Pollen cones reddish brown or yellowish brown, 1-2 cm × 3-4 mm. Seed cones light brown to chocolate brown, lustrous, narrowly ovoid or ovoid conical before opening, 3-6 × (2.5-)3-5 cm (closed), persistent. Seed scales ca. 1.8 × 0.8-1 cm, apophyses at middle of closed cones shield-or lozenge-shaped or pentagonal, with 2 or 3 distinct, ± straight or concave proximal edges and a distal end with either 2 distinct, straight or curved edges or a single, rounded margin; umbos depressed or flat, with a minute but distinct and persistent, mucronate prickle, or with a tiny, deciduous prickle, or unarmed. Seeds ellipsoid or ovoid, compressed, 5-6 × 2.6-3.4 mm (excluding wing); wing 1-1.4 cm × 5-6 mm. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct of 2nd year.
Open spaces, exposed ridges and places with sandy, acidic and nutrient-poor soil, at lower levels often associated with various species of oak (Castanopsis, Quercus) and forming pine-oak woodland in such places; at elevations from 750-3,500 metres.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs soaking.
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