Distribution. California coast region from Mendocino County southward, usually in widely separated localities to Point Reyes Peninsula, north of the Bay of San Francisco, and from Monterey to Coon Creek, San Luis Obispo County; in Lower California on Cedros Island and on the west coast between Ensenada and San Quentin; of its largest size and the common Pine-tree on the coast of Mendocino County.
27. [Pinus pungens] Lamb. Table Mountain Pine. Hickory Pine.
Leaves in crowded clusters, rigid, usually twisted, dark blue-green, 1¼′—2½′ long, deciduous during their second and third years. Flowers: male in elongated loose spikes, yellow; female clustered, long-stalked. Fruit ovoid-conic, oblique at base by the greater development of the scales on the outer than on the inner side, sessile, reflexed, in clusters usually of 3 or 4, or rarely of 7 or 8, 2′—3½′ long, becoming light brown and lustrous, with thin tough scales armed with stout hooked curved spines produced from much thickened mammillate knobs, opening as soon as ripe and gradually shedding their seeds, or often remaining closed for two or three years longer, and frequently persistent on the branches for eighteen or twenty years; seeds almost triangular, full and rounded on the sides, nearly ¼′ long, with a thin conspicuously roughened light brown shell, their wings widest below the middle, gradually narrowed to the ends, 1′ long, ¼′ wide.
A tree, when crowded in the forest occasionally 60° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and a few short branches near the summit forming a narrow round-topped head; in open ground usually 20°—30° tall, and often fertile when only a few feet high, with a short thick trunk frequently clothed to the ground, and long horizontal branches, the lower pendulous toward the extremities, the upper sweeping in graceful upward curves and forming a flat-topped often irregular head, and stout branchlets, light orange color when they first appear, soon growing darker and ultimately dark brown. Bark on the lower part of the trunk ¾′—1′ thick and broken into irregularly shaped plates separating on the surface into thin loose dark brown scales tinged with red, higher on the stem, and on the branches dark brown and broken into thin loose scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, very coarse-grained, pale brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; somewhat used for fuel, and in Pennsylvania manufactured into charcoal.
Distribution. Dry gravelly slopes and ridges of the Appalachian Mountains from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia, sometimes ascending to elevations of 3000°, with isolated outlying stations in eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia; often forming toward the southern limits of its range pure forests of considerable extent.
28. [Pinus Torreyana] Carr. Torrey Pine.
Leaves forming great tufts at the ends of the branches, stout, dark green, conspicuously marked on the 3 faces by numerous rows of stomata, 8′—13′ long. Flowers from January to March; male yellow, in short dense heads; female subterminal on long stout peduncles. Fruit broad-ovoid, spreading or reflexed on long stalks, 4′—6′ in length, becoming deep chestnut-brown, with thick scales armed with minute spines; mostly deciduous in their fourth year and in falling leaving a few of the barren scales on the stalk attached to the branch; seeds oval, more or less angled, ¾′—1′ long, dull brown and mottled on the lower side, light yellow-brown on the upper side, with a thick hard shell, nearly surrounded by their dark brown wings often nearly ½′ long.
A tree, usually 30°—40° high, with a short trunk about 1° in diameter, or occasionally 50°—60° tall, with a long straight slightly tapering stem 2½° in diameter, stout spreading and often ascending branches, and very stout branchlets bright green in their first season, becoming light purple and covered with a metallic bloom the following year, ultimately nearly black. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, deeply and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges covered by large thin closely appressed light red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light yellow, with thick yellow or nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel. The large edible seeds are gathered in large quantities and are eaten raw or roasted.