Pinus lambertiana
Sugar pine | |
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Species: | P. lambertiana
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Binomial name | |
Pinus lambertiana | |
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Natural range of Pinus lambertiana |
Pinus lambertiana (commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine) is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name lambertiana was given by the British botanist David Douglas, who named the tree in honour of the English botanist, Aylmer Bourke Lambert. It is native to the mountains of the Pacific coast of North America, from Oregon through California to Baja California.
Description
Growth
The sugar pine is the largest species of pine, commonly growing to 40–60 meters (130–195 ft) tall, exceptionally up to 82 m (269 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter of 1.5–2.5 m (4 ft 11 in – 8 ft 2 in), exceptionally 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in). Tallest recorded specimen is one standing at 83.45 metres (273 ft 9 in) in Yosemite National Park, discovered in 2015. Second tallest ever recorded was "Yosemite Giant", an 82.05 m (269 ft 2 in) tall specimen in Yosemite National Park, which died from a bark beetle attack in 2007. Tallest known living specimens today grow in southern Oregon and Yosemite National Park; one in Umpqua National Forest is 77.7 m (254 ft 11 in), and another in Siskiyou National Forest is 77.2 m (253 ft 3 in). Yosemite National Park also has the third tallest sugar pine measured to 80.5 m (264 ft 1 in) as of June 2013. The tree was affected by the Rim Fire, but it survived.
Pinus lambertiana is a member of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, and like all members of that group, the leaves ('needles') are in bundles (fascicles) of five, with a deciduous sheath. They are 6–11 cm (2+1⁄4–4+1⁄4 in)ch) long. Sugar pine is notable for having the longest cones of any conifer, mostly 25–50 cm (9+3⁄4–19+3⁄4 in) long, exceptionally up to 66 cm (26 in) long (although the cones of the Coulter pine are more massive). The seeds are 10–12 mm (13⁄32–15⁄32 in) long, with a 2–3-centimeter (3⁄4–1+1⁄8-inch) long wing that aids wind dispersal. The seeds of the sugar pine are also a type of pine nut and are edible.
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Male cones, which release pollen to fertilize female cones
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Almost ripe female cones
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A sugar pine cone held by a boy, showing its size
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The sugar pine has long straight branches, weighed down at the tips by the cones.
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Bark of a sugar pine on Mount San Antonio
Distribution
The sugar pine occurs in the mountains of Oregon and California in the western United States, and Baja California in northwestern Mexico; specifically the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Coast Ranges, and Sierra San Pedro Martir.
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Two sugar pine trunks (left) near a giant sequoia trunk (center) in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, northern California
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Old sugar pines in the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest, southern Oregon
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Sugar pines in Sequoia National Park
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Sugar pines in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California
White pine blister rust
The sugar pine has been severely affected by the white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola),[1] a fungus that was accidentally introduced from Europe in 1909. A high proportion of sugar pines has been killed by the blister rust, particularly in the northern part of the species' range that has experienced the rust for a longer period of time. The rust has also destroyed much of the western white pine and whitebark pine throughout their ranges.[2] The U.S. Forest Service has a program (see link below) for developing rust-resistant sugar pine and western white pine. Seedlings of these trees have been introduced into the wild. The Sugar Pine Foundation in the Lake Tahoe Basin has been successful in finding resistant sugar pine seed trees and has demonstrated that it is important for the public to assist the U.S. Forest Service in restoring this species. However, blister rust is much less common in California, and Sugar, Western White and Whitebark pines still survive in great numbers there.[3]
Etymology
Naturalist John Muir considered sugar pine to be the "king of the conifers". The common name comes from the sweet resin, which Native Americans used as a sweetener.[4] John Muir found it preferable to maple sugar.[5] It is also known as the great sugar pine. The scientific name was assigned by David Douglas in honor of Aylmer Bourke Lambert.
Folklore
In the Achomawi creation myth, Annikadel, the creator, makes one of the 'First People' by intentionally dropping a sugar pine seed in a place where it can grow. One of the descendants in this ancestry is Sugarpine-Cone man, who has a handsome son named Ahsoballache.[6]
After Ahsoballache marries the daughter of To'kis the Chipmunk-woman, his grandfather insists that the new couple have a child. To this end, the grandfather breaks open a scale from a sugar pine cone, and secretly instructs Ahsoballache to immerse the scale's contents in spring water, then hide them inside a covered basket. Ahsoballache performs the tasks that night; at the next dawn, he and his wife discover the infant Edechewe near their bed.[6]
The Washo language has a word for sugar pine, simt'á:gɨm, and also a word for "sugar pine sugar", nanómba.
References
Media related to Sugar pine at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ Moore, Gerry; Kershner, Bruce; Craig Tufts; Daniel Mathews; Gil Nelson; Spellenberg, Richard; Thieret, John W.; Terry Purinton; Block, Andrew (2008). National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America. New York: Sterling. p. 79. ISBN 1-4027-3875-7.
- ^ http://www.caforestpestcouncil.org/2005%20CFPC%20Meeting/1506%20Maloney_Dunlap%2005BR%20Survey.pdf
- ^ http://www.sugarpinefoundation.org
- ^ http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/sugar_pine/#.VZr15PmqpBc
- ^ Saunders, Charles Francis (1976). Edible and Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. Courier Dover Publications. p. 219. ISBN 0-486-23310-3.
- ^ a b Woiche, Istet (1992). Merriam, Clinton Hart (ed.). Annikadel: The History of the Universe as Told by the Achumawi Indians of California. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-1283-6. OCLC 631716557.
Further reading
- Chase, J. Smeaton (1911). Cone-bearing Trees of the California Mountains. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. p. 99. LCCN 11004975. OCLC 3477527. LCC QK495.C75 C4, with illustrations by Carl Eytel - Kurut, Gary F. (2009), "Carl Eytel: Southern California Desert Artist", California State Library Foundation, Bulletin No. 95, pp. 17-20 retrieved November 13, 2011
- Muir, J. (1911). My First Summer in the Sierra.
- Kinloch Jr., Bohun B.; Scheuner, William H. (1990). "Pinus lambertiana". In Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H. (eds.). Conifers. Silvics of North America. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: United States Forest Service (USFS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – via Southern Research Station.
- Habeck, R. J. (1992). "Pinus lambertiana". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
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External links
- USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Pinus lambertiana". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team.
- U.C. Jepson Manual treatment for Pinus lambertiana
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). "Pinus lambertiana". Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- US Forest Service—Dorena Genetic Resource Center — (USFS rust resistance program)
- The Sugar Pine Foundation — The Sugar Pine and Western White Pine Restoration Program
- Pinus lambertiana (sugar pine) — at U.C. Photo Gallery
- Template:IUCN2006
- Arboretum de Villardebelle: photo of a cone
- Gymnosperm Database: Pinus lambertiana
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Pinus
- Trees of the West Coast of the United States
- Flora of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
- Trees of the Southwestern United States
- Trees of the Northwestern United States
- Trees of Baja California
- Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
- Transverse Ranges
- Plants used in traditional Native American medicine
- Least concern plants
- Edible nuts and seeds