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TABLE MOUNTAIN PINE 



(Pinus pungens Lambert.) 



THE table mountain pine, for which mountain 

 pine is suggested as being a more appropriate 

 name, is a rather small tree, 20 to 60 feet high, with 

 an average diameter of 1 to 2 feet. It occurs scat 

 tered sparingly thro'Ugh the higher Appalachian 

 Mountains on the drier slopes and ridges and asso- 

 ciated with the black or pitch pine. 



TABLE MOUNTAIN PINE 

 One-lmU natural siie. 



From Sargent's "Manual of the Trees of North America," 

 by permission of Houghton-Mifflin Company. 



The bark of the trunk is lighter-colored than that 

 of the black pine, but the bark of the small branches 

 is broken into thin loose scales. 



The leaves are short, 2 to 4 inches long, in clus- 

 ters of two, rarely of three, bluish green, stiff, stout 

 and more or less twisted, persisting for 2 to 3 years. 

 The flowers are of two kinds on the same tree, the 

 male in long loose clusters on the old twig, the 

 female in whorls of 2 to 7 on the new growth. 



This pine can readily be distinguished by its 

 heavy massive cones, 2 to 3 inches long, with very 

 stout curved prickles, which occur usually in close 

 groups around the twigs. The cones open when ripe 

 and shed their seed gradually, but the empty cones 

 remain on the tree often for many years. 



The wood is soft, light, not strong, resinous and 

 coarse-grained. Along with associated species it is 

 sometimes cut for rough lumber, and in other places 

 for charcoal, but its chief value is for fuelwood. 



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