WHITEBARK PINE 



(Pinus Albicaulis) 



THIS interesting and peculiar pine has a number of names, most of 

 which are descriptive. The whiteness of the bark and the 

 stunted and recumbent position which the tree assumes on bleak 

 mountains are referred to in the names whitestem pine in California and 

 Montana, scrub pine in Montana, whitebark in Oregon, white in Cali- 

 fornia, and elsewhere it is creeping pine, whitebark pine, and alpine 

 whitebark pine. It is a mountain tree. There are few heights within its 

 range which it cannot reach. Its tough, prostrate branches, in its 

 loftiest situations, may whip snow banks nine or ten months of the year, 

 and for the two or three months of summer every starry night deposits 

 its sprinkle of frost upon the flowers or cones of this persistent tree. It 

 stands the storms of centuries, and lives on, though the whole period of 

 its existence is a battle for life under adverse circumstances. At lower 

 altitudes it fares better but does not live longer than on the most sterile 

 peak. Its range covers 500,000 square miles, but only in scattered 

 groups. It touches the high places only, creeping down to altitudes of 

 5,000 or 6,000 feet in the northern Rocky Mountains. It grows from 

 British Columbia to southern California, and is found in Montana, Idaho, 

 Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Its associates 

 are the mountain climbers of the tree kingdom, Engelmann spruce, Lyall 

 larch, limber pine, alpine fir, foxtail pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, 

 knobcone pine, and western juniper. Its dark green needles, stout and 

 rigid, are from one and one-half to two and one-half inches long. They 

 hang on the twigs from five to eight years. In July the scarlet flowers 

 appear, forming a beautiful contrast with the white bark and the green 

 needles. In August the seeds are ripe. The cones are from one and 

 one-half to three inches long. The seeds are nearly half an inch long, 

 sweet to the taste. The few squirrels and birds which inhabit the 

 inhospitable region where the whitebark pine grows, get busy the 

 moment the cones open, and few escape. Nature seems to have played 

 a prank on this pine by giving wings to the seeds and rendering their use 

 impossible. The wing is stuck fast with resin to the cone scales, and the 

 seed can escape only by tearing its wing off. The heavy nut then falls 

 plumb to the ground beneath the branches of its parent. It might be 

 supposed that a tree situated as the whitebark pine is would be provided 

 with ample means of seedflight in order to afford wide distribution, and 

 give opportunity to survive the hardships which are imposed by sur- 

 roundings ; but such is not the case. The willow and the cottonwood 



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