Digger pine

noun

1. a pine, Pinus sabiniana, of California, having drooping, grayish-green needles and large, heavy cones with edible seeds.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Digger pine¹

1880–85, Americanism; after the Digger Indians, who used the tree as a food source

Example Sentences

The salmon spirit, for instance, likes leaves or water; a sucker of the mountains would eat mountain pine nuts, but a valley sucker needs nuts off the digger pine.

From Project Gutenberg

The Western pitch pine, most abundant in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, at elevations of about a mile above the sea, has cones not unlike those of the digger pine, in the armament of their scales.

From Project Gutenberg

The digger pine is a western California tree of the semi-arid foothill country.

From Project Gutenberg

The terrain was extremely hilly and was covered with oak and coniferous trees, probably principally digger pine, although Font says he saw "spruce."

From Project Gutenberg

Finally, though, they got one into a little Digger Pine.

From Project Gutenberg