A tree 12-25(35) m tall, trunk often short and commonly slightly sinuous. Crown highly distinctive (shape shared only by P. nelsonii of NE Mexico), globose and shrubby when young, later domed and becoming very broad low-rounded with age; not conic except in first two years from seed; with long branches rising at 30°-60° above horizontal; branch tips upswept to vertical. Bark thick, plated, deeply fissured, red-brown to orange with blackish edges to the plates. Shoots usually uninodal, very rarely multinodal on vigorous young trees; moderately stout, yellow-buff, rough with persistent decurrent scale-leaf bases.