Tree to 10 m tall. Bark orange-brown, often reddish-brown higher up trunk, fissured. Winter buds 20–40 mm long, not resinous; scales fringed. Leaves in clusters of 3(–5), mostly 18–20 cm long, bright green, becoming pendulous. Female cones in clusters of 2–5, subsessile, pendulous, pale brown to grey, ovoid-cylindrical, strongly asymmetrical, 8–12 cm long, persistent; exposed portion of scale angular with minute dorsal spine. Seed with a well-developed wing.
VVP, GipP, CVU. Also naturalised Qld, NSW. Native to Mexico.
Grown as an ornamental in Victoria and rarely for timber elsewhere in Australia. Pinus patula is naturalised in Victoria near Mount Macedon, establishing from plantings in a nearby picnic ground.
