The Two-needle Pinon  (Pinus edulis) is a pine in the pinon pine group, native to the United States. Although it ranges includes southern Colorado, eastern and central Utah, northern Arizona, the unhbridized tree that produces the most sought after pinon nut  is primariliy found New Mexico. It occurs at moderate altitudes from 1600-2400 m, rarely as low as 1400 m and as high as 3000 m. It is widespread and often abundant in this region, forming extensive open woodlands, usually mixed with junipers.

It is a small to medium size tree, reaching 10-20 ft. tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 80 cm, rarely more. The bark is dark, irregularly furrowed and scaly. The leaves ('needles') are in pairs, moderately stout, 3-5.5 cm long, and green, with stomata on both inner and outer surfaces but distinctly more on the inner surface forming a whitish band. The cones are globose, 3-5 cm long and broad when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-buff when 18-20 months old, with only a small number of thick scales, with typically 5-10 fertile scales. The cones open to 4-6 cm broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening.

The seeds are 10-14 mm long, with a thin shell, a white endosperm, and a vestigial 1-2 mm wing; they are dispersed by the Pinyon Jay, which plucks the seeds out of the open cones. The jay, which uses the seeds as a food resource, stores many of the seeds for later use, and some of these stored seeds are not used and are able to grow into new trees.

Colorado Pinyon was described by George Engelmann in 1848 from collections made near Santa Fe, New Mexico on Alexander William Doniphan's expedition to northern Mexico in 1846.

It is most closely related to the Single-leaf Pinyon, which hybridises with it occasionally where their ranges meet in western Arizona and Utah. It is also closely related to the Texas Pinyon, but is separated from it by a gap of about 100 km so does not hybridise with it.

Uses

The edible seeds, pine nuts, are extensively collected throughout its range; in many areas, the seed harvest rights are owned by Native American tribes, for whom the species is of immense cultural and economic importance. The destruction of large areas of pinyon forests in the interests of cattle ranching is seen by many as an act of major ecological and cultural vandalism. Two-needle Pinon is also occasionally planted as an ornamental tree and sometimes used as a christmas tree.

It is the State tree of New Mexico.