OF Ohio 



29 



PITCH PENE 

 One-half natural sise. 



PITCH PINE 



Pinus rigida, Miller 



PITCH PINE has more common names than any other 

 eastern pine. Some of them are Jack Pine, Hard Pine, 

 Yellow Pine, Nigger Pine and Black Pine. In pioneer days 

 it was called Torch Pine and Candlewood Pine because the 

 early settlers used pine knots from this tree for torches in 

 their cabins and 

 for traveling out- 

 of-doors at night. 



The leaves arc 3 

 to 5 inches long, 

 rather rigid, and 

 occur in bundles of 

 three. Sometimes 

 two needles occur 

 in a bundle. It is 

 the only Eastern 

 pine that produces 

 dense mats of 

 needles along the 

 main stem. This 

 unusual growth is 

 often seen on 

 open-grown specimens. 



The cones are egg-shaped, 2 to 3 J^ inches long, sometimes 

 occur in clusters and persist for many years. Trees loaded 

 with thousands of cones are common. 



The bark is reddish-brown to black and breaks up into 

 irregular plates which peel off in thin scales. It becomes 

 thick early, which makes this tree the most fire-resistant ever- 

 green in eastern North America. The twigs are golden 

 brown, angled in cross-section, stout, brittle. The crown 

 is usually irregular in outline and ragged in appearance. 



The wood is rather brittle, coarse grained, pale brownish- 

 red with wide sapwood. It is used for railroad tics, mine 

 timbers and general construction work. 



Pitch Pine is found from New Brunswick to Lake Ontario 

 and south to Virginia and along the mountains to Georgia. 

 In Ohio this tree is confined to the sandstone region in the 

 southeastern part of the State. It is reported from 13 coun- 

 ties in this section of Ohio. It is usually found on dry, 

 shaly soils on upper slopes and ridges. It is an ordinary 

 tree, rarely exceeding 70 feet in height and 2 ^ feet in diam- 

 eter and well adapted to mountain soils. On exposed and 

 windswept places it is usually small and stunted. It de- 

 serves good care and protection, for it produces a fair grade 

 of wood, reseeds abandoned fields, and adapts itself to thin 

 and dry soils. 



