Prickly Pine

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Pine thorny (lat. Pinus pungens) - coniferous tree of modest size, one of the species of the Pine genus (Latin Pinus) of the Pine family (Latin Pinaceae). Usually grows on the steep slopes of a mountain range in North America with the name Appalachian, familiar to us from books and films about the Indians. Thorny at the tree and a trunk with branches, and sharp-needle needles, and even female cones, armed with their scales with wide protective thorns. Just a real vegetable hedgehog.

What's in your name

You can read about the meaning of the generic word "Pinus" in the article "Pine" of our Encyclopedia, which gives two versions of the origin of this name.

The specific epithet "pungens" is translated from Latin as "tingling", hence the Russian name for the plant "Pine prickly".

This type of Pine has many different names. There is also one that literally translates into Russian as "Prickly pine" - this is the English language "Prickly pine". There are a lot of thorns in the tree: this is the scaly-furrowed bark of trunks and branches, and sharp-nosed needles with jagged edges, and wide spines curved upward on the hard scales of female cones.

For the Pine's love for steep mountain slopes and the flat crown of mature trees, the tree is often called "Table Mountain pine", or simply "Mountain pine".

Description

The prickly pine is a slowly growing coniferous tree. Young seedlings are fixed on the rocks by introducing a taproot into the crevice of the rock. The tree then builds up lateral roots that penetrate the soil and plant litter to provide food and moisture for the plant.

Often the tree is very small, but with numerous branches. The prickly pine rarely grows up to 20 meters in height, although there is a case of a 29-meter tree growing in nature.

The trunk of the Spiny Pine is rarely straight, and its cross-section is correct. While young trees can be large shrubs when grown outdoors, or slender with relatively small branches when grown in more cramped conditions, older trees tend to have a wide and flat crown.

The thorny needles of the Mountain pine grow in bunches with 2 needles, less often 3 needles on the same tree. The tree owes its evergreen appearance to the fact that the needles in the bunches last from two to three years.

The prickly pine is a monoecious tree, and therefore male and female cones grow on the same tree, resorting to the help of the wind for pollination. Sedentary female cones ranging in length from 4 to 10 cm armed their rigid scales with wide spines curved upward, becoming like miniature pineapples.

The seeds of the Pine are thorny, triangular in shape and provided with wings, which they will need after ripening to find a place to live on steep slopes. The higher the female cone is on the tree, the smaller its size and seed size.

The role of prickly pine in nature

Mountain pine, choosing steep mountain slopes for its life, strengthens the soil with its roots, protects the slopes from debris.

Pine seeds are food for wild animals. American red squirrels especially love to feast on the fruits of the Barbed Pine. True, they do not always behave in a “civilized” manner, limiting the growth and competitiveness of Mountain Pine among other trees. The fact is that squirrels, when collecting cones, gnaw off whole branches, and then, descending from the tree to the ground, remove the cones from the branch. Thus, they limit the reserve of seed yield laid in the green of the branches.

Due to the poor shape of the trunk and branches and small growth, Spiny Pine is rarely used for the production of building materials, but sometimes it has to sacrifice its life for firewood or for the production of paper.