Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana description

Sapling above Wellman Cienega on Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

Cones and foliage on a tree about 50 feet below the summit of Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

Cone about 4 cm long, on a tree on Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

Cone about 6 cm long, on Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

A pair of old trees on Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

Lodgepole and Jeffrey pine parkland below Wellman Divide on Mt. San Jacinto, CA [C.J. Earle, 10-Apr-2004].

Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana (Balfour) Engelmann 1880

Common Names

Sierra lodgepole pine (Kral 1993), tamarack pine, tamrac pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus murrayana Balfour 1853; P.contorta var. murrayana (Balfour) Engelmann 1880 [in Watson, Bot. Calif. 2: 126]; P. bourcieri Carrière; P. tamrac A Murray (Critchfield 1957).

Description

Trees to 36 m tall and 90 cm dbh, straight, little tapering; crown mostly conic at maturity. Bark scaly, not evidently furrowed, orange- to purple-brown. Branches spreading, ascending at tips. Leaves 5-8 cm × 1-2 mm, yellow-green, apex acute. Seed cones maturing in 14-18 months, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, 3-6 cm long, nearly symmetric, buff-brown (unlike the darker orange-brown of the other ssp.), mostly spreading, rarely in whorls, more often paired or solitary, scales thin, flexible; mid and lower apophyses mostly shallowly domed; umbo with a slender, fragile 2-4 mm spine (Kral 1993, M.P. Frankis e-mail 28-Feb-1999).

Range

In the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Klamath Mts. of: USA: Washington, Oregon, California; Mexico: Baja California Norte. Found in montane forests at 400-3500 m (Critchfield 1957, Wheeler and Guries 1982). USDA hardiness zone 7.

Big Tree

Height 32 m, dbh 196 cm, crown spread 20 m; also, height 36 m, dbh 185 cm, crown spread 17 m; both located in Stanislaus National Forest, CA (American Forests 1996).

Oldest

A tree-ring chronology covering 471 years, presumably based on living tree material, was collected in 1984 in Yosemite Park, California (3000 m elev.; 37° 48'N, 119° 15' W) by K. Briffa and F.H. Schweingruber (NOAA 1999).

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

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

NOAA Paleoclimatology Program Tree-Ring Data Search Page, 24-Feb-1999. URL: http://julius.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ftp-treering.html.

Wheeler, N.C. and R.P. Guries. 1982. Population structure, genic diversity, and morphological variation in Pinus contorta Dougl. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 12: 595-606.