A smallish pine to about 20 m (66 ft.) tall with an open crown of long, upright branches and a thick trunk with flaky bark to over 1 m in diameter. The thin, stiff, bluish green, needle-like leaves reach 10 cm (4 in.) in length. It is native to the drier valleys of the inner, western Himalayas in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Tibet between 1800 and 3400 m (5900 and 11100 ft.). The large seeds or "pine nuts" are around 2 cm long, thin-shelled, easy to peel by hand and a heavily exploited and widely traded commodity in Pakistan and India.