COULTER PINE -'05 



of unopened cones were on nearly every dead tree. These cones opened 

 in a few weeks, after the fire, and a germination of 84.1 per cent was 

 secured from seeds collected from unopened or partially opened cones. 

 It is quite common in the chaparral to find the coulter pines over a 

 relatively large area to be even-aged, which would indicate that the 

 trees came in after a fire which removed the chaparral cover, either 

 from dormant seed or seed liberated from cones which had opened after 

 the fire. 



For the successful germination of the seed, contact with mineral soil 

 is required, as seeds sown at various depths in the heavy chaparral 

 litter have not germinated after four years, while seeds sown in the 

 mineral soil develop readily. As contact with mineral soil is a requisite, 

 this is doubtless the reason why coulter pine seldom enters a stand 

 except after fire has cleared the ground of the litter and herbaceous 

 vegetation. 



The seedling grows rapidly both in the shade and in the open, but in 

 the chaparral it does not succeed in competition with the brush^cover 

 where the brush is very heavy and where there is an early spring 

 drought. In normal seasons, because of the rather deep root system 

 which is developed early, coulter pine succeeds in becoming fully estab- 

 lished and .soon dominates the brush. 



The growth of coulter pine is exceedingly rapid when the sites upon 

 which it grows are taken into consideration, the development both in 

 diameter and height surpassing that of all of the other species in the 

 region where it grows. The diameter growth is especially rapid and in 

 a number of trees rings better than half an inch wide were observed, 

 but the general average is four rings per inch up to 20 inches diameter 

 on north slopes and seven rings per inch on south slopes. 



From over 200 borings and analyses made of coulter pine on the 

 Angeles, Cleveland, and Santa Barbara Forests, the data in Table 1 

 were gathered. 



When growing with jefifrev pine, coulter pine surpasses it in diameter 

 growth throughout its life, while at about 100 years Jeffrey surpasses 

 coulter in height. 



How fast the tree would grow under plantation conditions is un- 

 known, for it has not been tried out. Lately Los Angeles County has 

 been planting the tree in its roadside work and so far it has done ex- 

 ceedingly well, there he'mg few losses and rapid growth. From the 



