SUGAR PINE. 2 
occurrence and poor form on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. — 
The best commercial forests occur where there is an annual precipita- 
tion of 40 inches or more, although the species is found between 
precipitation limits of from 20 to 80 inches. Where the rainfall is 
below 30 inches, however, the trees are scattered and scrubby in 
form. The average snowfall in the sugar-pine belt is about 8 feet, 
with a range of from 3 to 20 feet. 
HABIT AND ROOT SYSTEM. 
Mature sugar pines have a striking individuality which enables one 
to indentify them at considerable distances. They generally rise 
above associated species and send out iong, straight branches at right 
angles to the main stem. 
The bole of sugar pine is sturdy, straight, and symmetrical. The 
taper is quite marked in young trees, but decreases from the fiftieth 
year until at maturity the trunk is well rounded out and the taper is 
very slight, except in the stump section. The tops of very old trees 
are often broken or flat, and the branches are irregular and have the 
appearance of being sparsely clothed with leaves. Young trees are 
symmetrical and branch regularly. 
Seedlings have a well-developed taproot. This does. not keep pace 
with the general development of the tree, however, and in later years 
the lateral root system is far more important, sometimes spreading 
over a radius of 40 feet and rendering the tree very resistant to wind. 
BARK, LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND SEED. 
The rich purple-brown or cinnamon-red bark of this tree is a dis- 
tinguishing characteristic. In trees of above middle age it is deeply 
and irregularly divided into long, thick, platelike ridges. The bark 
of young trees is thin, quite smooth, and of a grayish color. 3 
The foliage is dark green and composed of rigid needles from 24 to 
4 inches in length, occurring in clusters of 5, except on seedlings, 
which bear clusters of 12 to 15 seed leaves. 
During the spring flowering season the eye is attracted by the con- 
spicuous light-yellow male flowers, oblong in shape, and from i to 1 
inch in length. The female flowers are of a less attractive pale green 
color, borne terminally on the branches in groups of two or more. 
The cones of sugar pine are unique and serve to identify the species 
absolutely, mainly because of their great length, which averages from 
13 to 18 inches and not uncommonly reaches 23 inches. They mature 
in late August of the second year, and are then from 24 to 34 inches 
in diameter when closed, with blunt scales, slightly thickened at the 
tip. They are suspended on stalks at the very tips of the long 
branches, and when filled with their plump, blackish-brown seeds, 
from one-quarter to one-half inch in length, their weight imparts a 
