Common Names

Foothills pine; historically, called digger, Sabine, bull, gray or grayleaf pine. It is perhaps most widely called digger pine due to its wide use by native american tribes collectively and colloquially referred to as "diggers." However, that term has fallen into disgrace. As explained by Hunter (1991): "many Native Americans find the term digger offensive. A spokesman, who requests anonymity, for the California State Native American Heritage Commission says, "The word `digger' is very derogatory and insulting to California Indian people." A historical interpreter, who also requests anonymity, for the California State Indian Museum in Sacramento agrees: "To call a California Indian a `digger' means you are either ignorant or you are purposely trying to insult him. It is a very derisive word." These observers concur in the opinion that "the term digger is as offensive to California's Native Americans as the term 'nigger' is to African Americans." The terms "foothills pine" or "gray pine" are now officially preferred.

Taxonomic notes

A member, along with two other California species (Pinus coulteri and Pinus torreyana), of subsection Sabinianae Loudon. It was first collected by David Douglas in 1830, in the Gabilan Range near Mission San Juan Bautista (Peattie 1950).

Description

Trees 12-21(25) m with diameters of 60-120 cm, straight to crooked, often forked; crown conic to raggedly lobed, sparse. Bark dark brown to near black, irregularly and deeply furrowed, ridges irregularly rectangular or blocky, scaly, often breaking away, bases of furrows and underbark orangish. Branches often ascending; cone-bearing branchlets stout, twigs comparatively slender, both pale purple-brown and glaucous, aging gray, rough. Buds ovoid, red-brown, ca. 1cm, resinous; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves mostly 3 per fascicle, drooping, persisting 3-4 years, 15-32 cm x 1.5 mm, slightly twisted, dull blue-green, all surfaces with pale, narrow stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex short-acuminate; sheath to 2.4 cm, base persistent. Staminate cones ellipsoid, 10-15 mm, yellow. Ovulate cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 7 years, pendent, massive, heavy, nearly symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly to narrowly ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, 15-25 cm, dull brown, resinous, stalks to 5cm. Scales long, thick, sharply keeled and 4-sided; apophyses elongate, curved, continuous with umbos to form long, upcurved claws to 2 cm. Seeds narrowly obovoid, thick-walled; body ca. 20 mm, dark brown; wing broad, short, ca. 10 mm, shed easily. 2n=24 (Little 1980, Kral 1993).

Range

USA: California through the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, nearly ringing the Central Valley, in dry foothills. Found at (30)300-900(1900) m elevation (Little 1980, Kral 1993), commonly in association with California blue oak (Quercus douglasii) or canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis). The climate is Mediterranean, with annual mean precipitation of 530 mm, ranging from 76 to 1,000 mm. Eighty percent of precipitation occurs during winter and early spring. Snow falls occasionally. The annual mean temperature is 16°C, with maximum summer temperatures sometimes above 41°C). Relative humidity is often 5 percent or lower in summer (FEIS database, 2-Mar-2004). See also Thompson et al. (1999).

Big Tree

See photograph; height 37 m, diameter 156 cm, crown spread 25.1 m. Along the Nacimento-Ferguson road in the southern Santa Lucia Mountains.

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

The seeds were an important food source for many Indian groups in California (Kral 1993). The soft, lightweight wood is not durable and is used primarily as firewood (Little 1980).

Observations

Seen widely throughout its range. It can be seen in many California State Parks around the Central Valley and in Yosemite National Park, although it is strangely absent in the vicinity of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Within the proper habitat it is abundant and well-developed groves are common.

Remarks

Foothills pine and four species of Quercus (oaks) comprise the dominant species of the blue oak woodland, a community that essentially encircles the Central Valley. There are few shrubs, and the understory consists mainly of introduced grasses and native forbs. As such, the woodland is slightly hotter and drier than the chaparral, with which it forms a landscape mosaic that also includes parklands and grasslands. At increasing elevations, foothills pine is restricted to open habitats on serpentine soils, being competitively displaced by Pinus coulteri and P. ponderosa subsp. benthamiana (Barbour 1988). The role of fire in the establishment and perpetuation of foothills pine is largely unknown, but the species' fecundity, short life span and occurrence in fire-prone areas all suggest that it has coevolved with relatively frequent fire.

The large, heavy cones resemble footballs covered with wooden spikes. It is best to avoid the pine groves on windy days.

John Muir, as always, waxed poetic when he described this tree in the first chapter of My First Summer in the Sierra: "This day has been as hot and dusty as the first, leading over gently sloping brown hills, with mostly the same vegetation, excepting the strange-looking Sabine pine (Pinus Sabiniana), which here forms small groves or is scattered among the blue oaks. The trunk divides at a height of fifteen or twenty feet into two or more stems, outleaning or nearly upright, with many straggling branches and long gray needles, casting but little shade. In general appearance this tree looks more like a palm than a pine. The cones are about six or seven inches long, about five in diameter, very heavy, and last long after they fall, so that the ground beneath the trees is covered with them. They make fine resiny, light-giving camp-fires, next to ears of Indian corn the most beautiful fuel I've ever seen. The nuts, the Don tells me, are gathered in large quantities by the Digger Indians for food. They are about as large and hard-shelled as hazelnuts, --food and fire fit for the gods from the same fruit."

This species is the principal host for the dwarf mistletoe Arceuthobium occidentale (Hawksworth and Wiens 1996).

Citations

Barbour, Michael G. 1988. California upland forests and woodlands. P. 131-164 in Barbour, M.G. and W.D. Billings (eds.), "North American terrestrial vegetation." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hunter, Melvin. 1991. Racist Relics: An Ugly Blight On Our Botanical Nomenclature. The Scientist 5[23]:0. http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1991/nov/opin_911125.html.

See Also

Burns & Honkala 1990. As always, highly recommended.

The FEIS database has an extensive entry for this species. Highly recommended.

Griffin, J.R. 1964. Cone morphology in Pinus sabiniana. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 45:260-273.

Hinton, Leanne. 1994. Flutes of Fire. Berkeley, CA. Heyday Books, particularly the remarks quoted HERE.

Muir 1894.