212 TREES IN" WINTER 



PITCH PINE 



Hard Pine, Yellow Pine. 



Pinus rigida Mill. 



HABIT — Generally a low tree 30-50 ft. in height with a trunk 

 diameter of 1-2 ft. occasionally 70-80 ft, in height with trunk diameter 

 of 2-4 ft.; trunk more or less tapering, branches thick, gnarled, often 

 drooping, forming an open pyramidal or oblong head; foliage in coarse 

 rigid, yellowish-green tufts. Dead branches and old persistent cones 

 are frequent and the tree has generally a decidedly scraggly appearance. 



BARK — On young trunks and branches rough, broken into reddish 

 brown scales, with age becoming deeply furrowed into broad flat- 

 topped ridges separating on the surface into rather loose dark reddish- 

 brown scales. Clusters of leaves and short branches are not infre- 

 quently formed directly from the old trunk (see in photograph above 

 the tape measure.) 



TAVIGS — Stout, light brown, not downy, roughened especially after the 

 fall of the leaves by the decurrent bases of scales subtending the leaf- 

 clusters. 



LEAVES — In clusters of 3, with persistent sheaths, yellowish- 

 green, 2-5 inches long, stout, stiff, spreading with pointed tips. 

 MICROSCOPIC SECTION — 3-sided, showing 2 fibro-vascular bundles, 

 resin-ducts located intermediate between bundles and periphery, 

 c+T-engthening cells beneath the epidermis in patches several layers 

 thick, generally surrounding the resin-ducts and at one side of 

 the vascular bundles, stomata on all three sides. 



BUDS — Cylindrical to ovate, pointed, resin-coated, scales reddish- 

 brown. 



FRUIT — Cones li/^-4 inches long, without stalks, ovate becoming more 

 or less spherical when opened, borne laterally, singly or in clusters 

 at about a right angle to the twig, often remaining on the branches 

 for ten or a dozen years and frequently found on trees only a few 

 feet high. SCALES — thickened at tip and with a stiff recurved prickle. 



COMPARISONS — The Pitch Pine is the only native Pine in New 

 England that has three needles in a cluster. Its ragged appearance with 

 frequent dead branches, persistent cones, and yellowish-green, stiff 

 foliage renders it easily distinguished from the White and Red Pines 

 without examination of the needles. 



DISTRIBUTION — Most common in dry, sterile soils, occasional in 

 swamps. New Brunswick to Lake Ontario; south to Virginia and along 

 the mountains to northern Georgia; west to western New York, Ohio, 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Maine — mostly in the southwestern section near 

 the seacost; as far north as Chesterville, Franklin county; scarcely 

 more than a shrub near its northern limits; New Hampshire — most 

 common along the Merrimac valley to the White Mountains and up 

 the Connecticut valley to the mouth of the Passumpsic, reaching an 

 altitude of 1,000 feet above the sea level; Vermont — common in the 

 northern Champlain valley, less frequent in the Connecticut valley; Con- 

 necticut — rare or local in Litchfield county, frequent elsewhere; com- 

 mon in the other New England states, often forming large tracts of 

 voodland, sometimes exclusively occupying extensive areas. 



WOOD — Light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, very durable, 

 light brown or red, with thick yellow or often white sapwood; largely 

 used for fuel and in the manufacture of charcoal; occasionally sawed 

 into lumber. 



