Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia description

Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia (Engelmann) Critchfield 1957

Common Names

Lodgepole or doghair pine (Elmore and Janish 1976); black, spruce, prickly, jack or tamrac pine (Peattie 1950).

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelmann 1871; P. tenuis Lemmon (Critchfield 1957). There is genetic evidence that subsp. latifolia is separable into two populations, a southern one in the Rocky Mtns. south of the Pleistocene ice, and a northern one that survived in ice-free areas north of the main ice front in Canada (Wheeler and Guries 1982, Wheeler and Critchfield 1985); these could possibly be distinct at varietal rank but no name has been given to the northern population.

Description

Trees to 41 m tall and 80 cm dbh, mostly straight and evenly tapering, or near timberline reduced to shrub form by windblown ice; crown usually conic at maturity. Bark gray- to red-brown, not evidently furrowed, separating into loose plates. Branches mostly horizontally spreading, not ascending at tip. Leaves (4-)5-8 cm × 1.4-2.5(-3) mm [1-2(-3) mm in dry herbarium material], yellow-green, apex narrowly acute to short-acuminate. Seed cones maturing in 16-18 months, then shedding seeds or variously serotinous, long-persistent, strongly asymmetric, mostly recurved, seldom whorled, mostly in twos or solitary, (2-)2.5-5(-5.5) cm long, orange-brown, mid and lower apophyses mostly much domed (Critchfield 1957, Kral 1993).

Range

Rocky Mountains and various Intermountain ranges, including: USA: Alaska (marginally), E Washington, NE Oregon, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah; Canada: SW Northwest Territories, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan. Found in montane and subalpine forests, often at upper or lower treeline, at elevations of 100-3500 m. Most stands establish after fire (Elmore and Janish 1976, Kral 1993).

Big Tree

Height 41 m, dbh 111 cm, crown spread 12 m, located in Valley County, ID (American Forests 1996).

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

"It is the most wide-ranging and commercially utilized variety [of lodgepole pine]. Its poor self-pruning character makes it less desirable for lumber but adequate for mine timbers, fences, and pulpwood" (Kral 1993). USDA hardiness zone 3-4.

Observations

Remarks

"Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) is the provincial tree of Alberta" (Kral 1993).

Citations

Critchfield, W.B. 1957. Geographic variation in Pinus contorta. Maria Moors Cabot Foundation (Harvard) Publ. 3.

Wheeler, N.C. and W.B. Critchfield 1985. The distribution and botanical characteristics of Lodgepole pine: Biogeographical and Management implications. Pp. 1-13 in D.M. Baumgartner (ed.). Lodgepole pine: the species and its management. Pullman, WA: Washington State University.

Wheeler, N.C. and R.P. Guries 1982. Biogeography of lodgepole pine. Canadian Journal of Botany 60: 1805-1814.