Trees Planet: Pinus Contorta

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Pinus Contorta – Lodgepole Pine

General Information

Common Name	Lodgepole Pine
Scientific Name	*Pinus Contorta*
Sun Tolerance	Full Sun
Height	40-50 m (130-160 ft)
Spread	15 - 30 m (50 - 100 ft)
Growth Rate	Fast
Bloom Time	Spring
Color	Green,
Flower Color	Gold
Type	Tree
Native	USA, Asia, Europe.

Classification

Kingdom	Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision	Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division	Coniferophyta – Conifers
Class	Pinopsida
Subclass
Order	Pinales
Family	Pinaceae – Pine family
Genus	Pinus – Pine
Species	P. contorata

Pinus Contorta commonly known as Lodgepole Pine is native to North America. It’s a two-needled conifer. The name ‘Lodgepole’ is derived from its use by Indians as poles to support their wigwams or lodges.

Pinus Contorta – Lodgepole Pine

The twigs are orange-brown to black wrinkled when young. The long buds are cylindrical, resinous and blunt. The young shoots stand upright in May and June like emerald candles. The needles are stiff and in pairs, bound together at their base by a sheath consisting of membranous scales.

They are of similar length about 2-5 cm to those of Scots Pine but are stouter slightly twisted and yellowish-green or mid-green. The foliage tends to be dense with much overlapping of needles in trees of American costal provenances.

The flowers of both sexes are found on the same tree and they are produced from the second year of life. The males are rather dense clusters of yellow to orange globules and the females (terminal on new shoots) are small and crimson, soon becoming reddish-purple, plum-colored and spiky cone-lets. The cones on inland and northern provenances of Lodgepole Pine are often at a node two-third of the way up the year’s shoot; but the coastal provenances are rarely bi-nodal in growth. The cone points down the shoot, is somewhat egg-shaped, about 4 cm in length and the raised portion of each scale (the umbo) bears a small sharp prickle.

The bark is rather odd, being a dull brownish-black and broken into small squarish plates divided by shallow furrows, or closely scaly. The heartwood is a pale straw color and there is very little contrast between heartwood and sapwood. The timber has proved a satisfactory alternative to Scots Pine for roofing, flooring, interior framing, and other joinery. Thinnings are used for paper pulp, chipboard, poles and pit-props.

In the last twenty years Lodgepole Pine has been planted on an ever-increasing scale in Scotland and North Wales because of its remarkable tolerance of poor soils, including the peaty moorlands of the wetter and cloudier western districts. Under comparable conditions it grows significantly faster than does Scots Pine and leading shoots of 5 feet may be seen.