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MISC. PUBLICATION 18, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



strong seedlings which they produce. It may be distinguished by 

 its light gray bark and by its fine, almost silky needles which almost 

 always occur five to the bundle. The limber pine is a "poor rela- 

 tion " of the eastern white pine and resembles it slightly, but never 

 attains any great size and is of little value except for fuel. 



The only tree with which one might confuse limber pine is the 

 bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata), which occurs up toward timber line, 

 and usually on rocky ridges. This tree also has needles in bundles 

 of five, but they are shorter and stiffer than limber-pine needles, 

 and almost always covered with tiny specks of pitch. The cones 

 are prickly, each scale having a sharp hook on its outer extremity, 

 which gives the tree its name. It is also sometimes called " fox-tail " 

 pine, because of the long slender twigs clothed with needles which 

 resemble the brush of the fox. 







Fig. 25. — Trappers Lake, White River National Forest 



F-42975-A 



One tree which occurs very sparingly in the Pikes Peak region, 

 though it is common northward and westward in Colorado and 

 Wyoming, is the loclgepole pine (Pinus contorta), which derives 

 its common name from the long, slender poles formed when the 

 tree grows in thick stands, as it does characteristically. It is dis- 

 tinguished by the yellow-green color of the foliage, by needles 2 to 4 

 inches long, usually in bundles of two, and by small, hard cones, 

 which cling to the branches for years without opening or dropping 

 their seeds. Sometimes these cones cling so long that they are 

 entirely buried in the wood, and are found mummified when blocks 

 of wood are split open. This ability to retain its cones and seeds 

 is very valuable to the tree when fire occurs in the forest. Though 

 all of the old trees may be killed, the cones are opened by the heat, 

 seeds fall to the ground, and a new forest is started at once. 



The pirion of the foothills (Pinus edulis) completes the list of 

 true pines of the region. This is a small, scrubby tree which reaches 

 its northern limit in this region but is very common in the South- 



