The flowers are bright scarlet and rose-purple, giving a very flowery appearance little looked for in such a tree.

The cones are about three inches long, an inch and a half in diameter, grow in rigid clusters, and are dark chocolate in color while young, and bear beautiful pearly-white seeds about the size of peas, most of which are eaten by chipmunks and the Clarke's crows.

Pines are commonly regarded as sky-loving trees that must necessarily aspire or die.

This species forms a marked exception, crouching and creeping in compliance with the most rigorous demands of climate; yet enduring bravely to a more advanced age than many of its lofty relatives in the sun-lands far below it.

Seen from a distance it would never be taken for a tree of any kind.