Leaves tufted at the ends of the branches, stout, rigid, dark blue-green, marked by numerous bands of stomata on the 3 faces, 6′—12′ long, deciduous during their third and fourth seasons. Flowers: male yellow; female dark reddish brown. Fruit oblong-conic, short-stalked and pendant, 10′—14′ long, becoming light yellow-brown, with thick broad scales terminating in a broad, flat, incurved, hooked claw ½′—1½′ long, gradually opening in the autumn and often persistent on the branches for several years; seeds ellipsoidal, compressed, ½′ long, ¼′—⅓′ wide, dark chestnut-brown, with a thick shell, inclosed by their wings, broadest above the middle, oblique at apex, nearly 1′ longer than the seed, about ⅝′ wide.
A tree, 40°—90° high, with a trunk 1°—2½° in diameter, thick branches covered with dark scaly bark, long and mostly pendulous below, short and ascending above, and forming a loose unsymmetrical often picturesque head, and very stout branchlets dark orange-brown at first, becoming sometimes nearly black at the end of three or four years. Bark of the trunk 1½′—2′ thick, dark brown or nearly black and deeply divided into broad rounded connected ridges covered with thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, light red, with thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel. The seeds were formerly gathered in large quantities and eaten by the Indians of southern California.
Distribution. Scattered singly or in small groves through coniferous forests on the dry slopes and ridges of the coast ranges of California at elevations of 3000°—6000° above the sea, from Mount Diablo and the Santa Lucia Mountains to the San Bernardino and Cuyamaca Mountains; and on the Sierra del Pinal, Lower California; most abundant on the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges at elevations of about 5000°.
19. [Pinus resinosa] Ait. Red Pine. Norway Pine.
Leaves slender, soft and flexible, dark green and lustrous, 5′—6′ long, obscurely marked on the ventral faces by bands of minute stomata, deciduous during their fourth and fifth seasons. Flowers: male in dense spikes, dark purple; female terminal, short-stalked, scarlet. Fruit ovoid-conic, subsessile, 2′—2¼′ long, with thin slightly concave scales, unarmed, becoming light chestnut-brown and lustrous at maturity; shedding their seeds early in the autumn and mostly persistent on the branches until the following summer; seeds oval, compressed, ⅛′ long, with a thin dark chestnut-brown more or less mottled shell and wings broadest below the middle, oblique at apex, ¾′ long, ¼′—⅓′ broad.
A tree, usually 70°—80° or occasionally 120° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° or rarely 5° in diameter, thick spreading more or less pendulous branches clothing the young stems to the ground and forming a broad irregular pyramid, and in old age an open round-topped picturesque head, and stout branchlets at first orange color, finally becoming light reddish brown. Bark of the trunk ¾′—1¼′ thick and slightly divided by shallow fissures into broad flat ridges covered by thin loose light red-brown scales. Wood light, hard, very close-grained, pale red, with thin yellow often nearly white sapwood; largely used in the construction of bridges and buildings, for piles, masts, and spars. The bark is occasionally used for tanning leather.
Distribution. Light sandy loam or dry rocky ridges, usually forming groves rarely more than a few hundred acres in extent and scattered through forests of other Pines and deciduous-leaved trees; occasionally on sandy flats forming pure forests; Nova Scotia to Lake St. John, westward through Quebec and central Ontario to the valley of the Winnipeg River, and southward to eastern Massachusetts, the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, and to central and southwestern (Port Huron) Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, most abundant, and growing to its largest size in the northern parts of these states; rare and local in eastern Massachusetts and southward.
Often planted for the decoration of parks, and the most desirable as an ornamental tree of the Pitch Pines which flourish in the northern states.