Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 1 m d.b.h. in native range; bark gray or pale reddish brown, fissured and shed in large, flat, wide plates; crown ovoid or irregularly shaped; branchlets initially green and glaucous, aging orange-brown, producing a few short nodes each year; winter buds cylindric, scales white fringed at margin. Needles (2 or)3 per bundle, usually 4 or 5 per bundle on young trees, dull green or pale yellow-green, 15-30 cm × ca. 1.5 mm, stomatal lines present on all surfaces, resin canals (2 or)3 or 4(-8), internal, base with persistent sheath 1-1.5 cm, margin serrulate. Seed cones almost terminal, ovoid-cylindric, 5-10(-12) × 3-6 cm, often leaving a few basal scales. Seed scales reflexed or spreading; apophyses lustrous, tan or reddish brown, swollen, cross keeled; umbo slightly projecting, ending in a straight, minute prickle. Seeds usually narrowly mottled gray or light brown, rhombic-ovoid, 6-7 mm; wing dull gray, 2-2.5 cm, usually remaining attached.

Cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Jiangxi [native to Caribbean region, Central America]