piñon

plural piñons · plural piñones · alternative pinon · alternative pinyon

1. countableuncountableAny of several species of North American pines in Pinus subsect. Cembroides that bear edible seeds (pine nuts), especially Pinus edulis; the nut pine.

   They planted a few piñons.

   3 more examples

   The hills were covered with clusters of piñon.

   On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.

   1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22

   Anglos call it a “kiva fireplace” and put several in every Santa Fe style building, carefully burning piñon firewood upright in the approved local manner.

   1994, Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, New York: Viking, →ISBN, page 146

   Synonyms: piñon pine

2. countableuncountableA pine nut.