

PINACE^E 23 



Often planted for the decoration of parks, and the most desirable as an ornamental tree 

 of the Pitch Pines which flourish in the northern states. 



20. Pinus contorta Loud. Scrub Pine. 



Leaves dark green, slender, I'-lV long, marked by 6-10 rows of stomata on each face, 

 mostly persistent 4-6 years. Flowers orange-red: male in short crowded spikes; female 

 clustered or in pairs on stout stalks. Fruit ovoid to subcylindric, usually very oblique 

 at base, horizontal or declining, often clustered, f-2' long, with thin slightly concave 

 scales armed with long slender more or less recurved often deciduous prickles, and toward 

 the base of the cone especially on the upper side developed into thick mammillate knobs, 

 becoming light yellow-brown and lustrous, sometimes opening and losing their seeds as 

 soon as ripe, or remaining closed on the branches and preserving the vitality of their seeds 

 for many years; seeds oblique at apex, acute below, about ' long, with a thin brittle 

 dark red-brown shell mottled with black and wings widest above the base, gradually tap- 

 ering toward the oblique apex, \' long. 



A tree, sometimes fertile when only a few inches high, usually 15-20 or occasionally 30 

 tall, with a short trunk rarely more than 18' in diameter, comparatively thick branches 

 forming a round-topped com- 

 pact and symmetrical or an 

 open picturesque head, and 

 stout branchlets light orange 

 color when they first appear, 

 finally becoming dark red- 

 brown or occasionally almost 

 black. Bark of the trunk 

 f '-!' thick, deeply and irreg- 

 ularly divided by vertical 

 and cross fissures into small 

 oblong plates covered with 

 closely appressed dark red- 

 brown scales tinged with Fig. 26 

 purple or orange color. Wood 



light, hard, strong although brittle, coarse-grained, light brown tinged with red, with 

 thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel. 



Distribution. Coast of Alaska, usually in sphagnum-covered bogs southward in the 

 immediate neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the Albion River, Mendocmo County, 

 California; south of the northern boundary of the United States generally inhabiting sand 

 dunes and barrens or occasionally near the shores of Puget Sound the margins of tide pools 

 and deep wet swamps; spreading inland and ascending the coast ranges and western slopes 

 of the Cascade Mountains, where it is not common and where it gradually changes its 

 habit and appearance, the thick deeply furrowed bark of the coast form being found only 

 near the ground, while the bark higher on the stems is thin, light-colored, and inclined 

 to separate into scales, and the leaves are often longer and broader. This is 



Pinus contorta var. latifolia S. Wats. Lodge-pole Pine. 



Pinus conlorta var. Murrayana Engelm. 



Leaves yellow-green, usually about 2' long, although varying from l'-3' in length and 

 from iV to nearly f' in width. Fruit occasionally opening as soon as ripe but usually re- 

 maining closed and preserving the vitality of the seeds sometimes for twenty years. 



A tree, usually 70-80 but often 150 high, with a trunk generally 2-3 but occasionally 

 5-6 in diameter, slender much-forked branches frequently persistent nearly to the base 

 of the stem, light orange-colored during their early years, somewhat pendulous below, 

 ascending near the top of the tree, and forming a narrow pyramidal spire-topped head. 



