Pine Tree Fun Facts!

[Buffy]

The not-so-little one has got a project on Pine Trees (genus Pinus)...

 

Anyone got any "fun facts" about them?

 

As the poet said, 'Only God can make a tree' -- probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on, ;)

Buffy

[Turtle]

:eek2: pine fun factoid: the length of needles/leaves & the number of needles in each little bunch, called fascicles, are useful keys in identifying pines. ;)

 

Tree Identification

[Moontanman]

When I was twelve I planted 300 or so pine trees as a 4H project, 43 years later about 100 of them are left, at about two feet thick and over 100 feet tall I feel like my life time carbon emissions are close to neutral at least due to that, :) I now live in an area with very large long leaf pines that have very large cones, they are considered to be the most fire resistant of all pine trees.

 

Pinus palustris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Longleaf Pine Ecosystem

 

The most interesting are the pines that have to go through fire to be born.

 

Pinus serotina - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The species name is derived from the persistently unopened cones that may remain closed for several years before they release their seeds; the opening is often in response to forest fires.

[JMJones0424]

First, a caveat. I have no formal training in biology, I am (poorly) self-taught. I work at a wholesale nursery that doesn't particularly specialize in "pines", though we do carry a few varieties.

 

I have long been fascinated by the pine tree's ability to alter its local environment. Where I live in central Texas, most deciduous trees, if the stand is thick enough, can effectively shade out competition for nutrients and moisture from grasses and brushes, but individual trees by themselves can not generate enough annual leaf litter to prevent competition. Pine trees, because their needles decompose so slowly, tend to provide their own "mulch" and can drastically change their local environment in their favor.

 

Pine trees also seem to prefer NH4 over NO3 as a nitrogen source, or at least more so than most other terrestrial plants. The long-term result of preferred anion uptake of pines is that the soil slowly acidifies (which still kind of confuses me). Quick google scholar search led me to this: SpringerLink - Journal Article

 

I live on a handful of acres of silty-clay soil that was cleared for pasture more than 75 years ago. About 40 years ago, a stand of Loblolly Pine was planted on either side of the driveway entrance to the property. Except where I have changed the soil through gardening over the last decade, the soil has a pH of about 7.8. Directly under the 40+ year-old stand of pines, the pH is around 6.8. As far as I know, nothing was done to alter the soil.

[Turtle]

the oldest known non-clonal living thing in the world today, is a pine tree. :)

 

Earth's oldest living inhabitant "Methuselah" at 4,767 years, has lived more than a millennium longer than any other tree. Discover how these trees were found and where they live. Learn of their unique strategies for survival. The focus will be on the White-Inyo mountain range of California. ...

 

read full report here: >> Ancient Bristlecone Pine

[Essay]

Pinus, as a conifer, is a descendant of the first seed-bearing plants, which evolved about 400 million years ago--over 100 million years before the first dinosaurs. Turpentine is an important chemical that is formed from the terpenes in pine resins. The resins in conifers helped the trees resist fungal, insect, and animal attack. Many coal deposits are partly formed from the resins, pollens, and woods of these ancient "first" trees.

[Boerseun]

Pine trees are vicious killers... albeit slow ones.

 

They shed their needles with the express intent to create a bed of flammable matter to kill off other competing species. Lighting strikes, the forest burns down, and the pine tree's competitors are toast.

 

It seems like it is intentional (well, evolved to that point, but you get the idea), because pine cones need a fire to pass over them before they sprout.

 

Problem is, of course, that well-meaning humans put out any forest fires, so that when the pine needles do light up, the bed is much thicker than it should have been without human interference, and the resulting fire burns much hotter, and even the pine cones die. The road to hell being paved with good intentions, and all that jazz...

[Turtle]

ever eat a pine tree? some parts are edible. (obscure reference )

 

fun fact:

 

Bryce Canyon National Park - Colorado Pinyon (U.S. National Park Service)

...Plant Lore:

The popular nuts from Pinyons are called "pine nuts" or "Indian nuts." These kidney-bean sized seeds ripen in October-November. They are very nutritious consisting of 50% fat' date=' 25% carbohydrates, 25% protein. A single nut yields as much 20 calories. One pound of pine nuts supplies 3,000 calories--much more than an average pound of hamburger! Not what you'd call a low-fat, diet food!

 

People have been eating pine nuts since 4000 BC. Navajo and Pueblo traditions both identify pinyon nuts as food of their ancestors.

...

[img']http://www.nps.gov/brca/naturescience/images/Pinus_edulis1.jpg[/img]

[Moontanman]

Buffy, you have picked on my favorite topics, pine trees are very cool as are conifers in general. I think the relationship many pine trees have with fire is fascinating, the idea that a tree that is so flammable would be helped by fire is really wild.

 

Bald cypress are also very cool but they depend on water to cull out the competition wich is also unusual for conifers.

[pamela]

Pine tea anyone?

Pine needles pack an enormous amount of vitamin C.

Jaques Cartier the French explorer, and what was left of his crew survived scurvy by drinking pine tea as given by the Iroquois Indians.

 

All you need is this, and I would do well to heed this recipe as I am fighting severe bronchitis at the moment.;)

 

handful of pine needles

Boil for maybe 10 minutes or so

strain and drink

you can add honey to sweeten it

enjoy

[Moontanman]

Go for the pine tree tea pamela, i bet it tastes like Gin!

[Turtle]

pine needles have been used for basketry for thousands of years.

 

Native American Baskets

...Basket-weaving is one of the oldest known Native American crafts--there are ancient Indian baskets from the Southwest that have been identified by archaeologists as nearly 8000 years old. As with most Native American art, there were originally multiple distinct basketry traditions in North America. Different tribes used different materials, weaving techniques, basket shapes, and characteristic patterns. Northeast Indian baskets, for example, are traditionally made out of pounded ash splints or braided sweetgrass. Cherokee and other Southeast Indian baskets are traditionally from bundled pine needles or rivercane wicker. ...

 

Photo link: >>SANTA CATARINA Baja California Mexico Kumeyaay Pai Pai Indians Documentary Photos Pictures

 

[Moontanman]

The whole pine needle basket thing is big here, it's practically a cottage industry. I guess the very long needles of the local pine trees makes it just to tempting to ignore as a possibility.