PINUS × CRITCHFIELDII,A LATE PLEISTOCENE HYBRID PINE FROM COASTAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Fossil cones buried in an old landslide at San Clemente are dated at 30,000–34,000 BP (years before present). They generally resemble cones of the natural hybrid Pinus radiata × P. attenuata at Año Nuevo, and also the artificial hybrid P. × attenuradiata. But differences in cone shape, size, and apophyses suggest that the fossil P. × critchfieldii Axelrod and T. G. Hill represents a hybrid of populations of P. radiata and P. attenuata then in coastal southern California. This agrees with population differences between these species in central and southern California during the Pleistocene. Regional comparisons of Late Pleistocene floras indicate that at San Clemente mean annual rainfall was about 580–635 mm, or twice that of today, mean annual temperature was about 2.5 C cooler (13.5 vs. 16.0 C), the mean monthly range was lower (5.9 vs. 7.7 C), the growing season was about 40 days shorter (170 vs. 210 days), and equability was higher (M 72 vs. M 67). Forest was replaced by coastal sage scrub and grassland along the San Clemente coast as drier, warmer climate developed after 12,000 BP.