 |
|
|
 |
The Monday Garden
Great Americans: The Eastern White Pines of Hoyt Street Alley
Issue No. 0145 - January 2, 2005
by Sue Sweeney
| |
|
In the Hoyt Street Alley, there are numerous representatives
of the conifer clan: arborvitaes, junipers, red cedars,
hemlocks, yews (non-native), and white pines. It is only
appropriate that the white pine, the Northeast’s dominate
pine, also dominates in the alley. It is said that in
pre-Columbian times, we had millions of white pines, which
were, by the late 1800’s, turned into so many piles of
lumber by the European settlers -- an astonishing 3.4
billion fbm (foot board measure), if you count such things.
However, the white pine is tough, fast growing and good
at reforestation, which it can accomplish on its own or when
planted by humans. So despite the previous devastation,
today, in the Northeast, we are once again blessed with
many, many white pines.
|
| |
 |
| Picture: The squirrel pair who inhabit the
mini-grove of white pines at the foot of Hoyt Street Alley, playing
on the trunk during this past week’s warm spell. Stamford CT,
December 2004 |
| |
|
The Westerners have their Douglas firs, tall and straight as
an arrow, craggy and pyramid-topped. Here, in the East, we
enjoy a few Douglas firs, with their curious little
“snake-tongue” pine cones. Our “default” pine, though, is
the eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), with its long,
feathery needles. While vast hordes of Douglas firs march
up and down the Rockies, straight and pointy as soldiers
carrying spears, the white pines create dramatic Eastern
sun-set scenes with their soft, wind-swept outlines and
upward curving branches.
This tree is so beloved that it’s the official tree
of two states and a province: Maine, Michigan, and
Ontario. The eastern white pine (also called the
northern white pine) ranges along the Atlantic
coast, north to Zone 2, south to Zone 7 and west to
the Great Lakes.
|
| |
 |
| Picture: A Douglas fir on the left and two white
pines on the right at the First Presbyterian Church, across from the
Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT December 2004. Note the Douglas fir’s
pointy crown and the white pines' rounded ones. |
| |
|
The white pine seeds itself via the wind and with
the help of its squirrel and bird friends. It also
gets a lot of help from the humans’ tree nurseries
who know a good thing when they see it— popular,
fast growing, pest-resistant, long-lived. Even the
“tree God” Michael A. Dirr (a well-known arborist
and author) says white pines are the best tree to
plant in the tree’s native range. Most of the white
pines that I see along the interstates look
self-planted but, in town, at least half seem to
have been intentionally placed by humans. White
pines don’t usually get all that big, for trees.
Most sub/urban white pines “only” reach 80 feet or
so. The tree is longer lived in the wild where
heights of 150 feet have been recorded and ages of
up to 400 years. The tree has a spread of about 1/3
of its height.
|
| |
|
|
| pictures: white pine cones from infancy to
maturity, Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
The white pine’s cones are distinctive. They’re long
(4”-7“), and often curved. They hang downwards,
sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters. . When
green, the cones sparkle with fresh, dipping sap;
the mature cones look frosted with dried sap. Fallen
mature cones, opened to release the seeds, are
usually found around the base of the tree in the
thick carpet of shed needles. Don’t confuse these
cones with the equally long cones of the Norway
spruce; the latter’s cones have smooth, shiny,
symmetrical scales.
|
| |
|
|
| pictures: white pine needles clump together in
the rain, spread out when warm, and droop when distressed (here, a
shaded branch is dying out as part of the tree’s self-pruning
program) Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
Equally distinctive are the white pines’ long, soft,
flexible needles. If you look closely you’ll see
that the needles come in bundles of 5, which is
unusually in native pines in the Northeast. (Most
Northeastern native pines have single needles or
needles in bundles of 2). You’ll also notice that
the blue-green needles are 3-sided and have a white
stripe. Every fall, about half the tree’s needles
turn deep yellow and are then shed, filling the
lower part of Hoyt Street Alley with heaps of
silkily, wheat-colored dried needles.
|
| |
|
|
| pictures: white pines shed part of their long,
flexible needles in the fall, Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
The third tell-tale for white pines is the upward
curving branches, sometimes, looking like the cross
section of a cabbage or onion on mature trees.
|
| |
 |
| picture: from the crown of a young white pine, a
starling tells the world that it’s 50F on Christmas Day, Hoyt Street
Alley, Stamford CT 2004 Note how the needles look like "tuffs" at
the ends of the branches. |
| |
|
Young white pines have gray-greenish, smooth bark,
the bark ages into rectangular scaly plates on older
trees; the mature bark can be brown, gray and/or
reddish tinged.
|
| |
|
|
| pictures: bark of a young white pine and of two
middle-age white pines, one much redder than the other. Hoyt Street
Alley, Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
Culture: Like most pines, the white pine prefers
full sun, but tolerates some shade especially when
young. It likes infertile, sandy soil but will grow
in most acid to neutral soils (PH 4.0 to 7.0). White
pines like moisture and humidity but must, must be
well drained or they’ll rot. They do get a bit of
wind and ice damage in the winter, and are said to
not be particularly drought tolerant. It’s also said
that, while they do stand up to acid rain, they
don’t tolerate salt and shouldn’t be planted close
to roads or sidewalks. Because they’re native,
they do get pests. According to the USA Forest
Service, which takes trees very, very seriously,
“there are a total of 277 insects and 110 disease
organisms known to attack white pine. Only 16
insects and 7 diseases cause sufficient injury or
mortality to be of concern.”
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| pictures: the white pine mini-grove at the base
of Hoyt Street Alley. Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
However, the white pines of Hoyt Street Alley are
all subject to wind, ice, drought, road salt, and
every known pest that can find the Alley. No one
sprays, fertilizes or waters the pines, yet they do
just fine on their own in full sun with good
drainage.
|
| |
|
|
| pictures: some of the other white pines along the
Alley. Note that the first set have been hedge-pruned. Locally, this
is not as uncommon a practice as one might wish. The second picture
is the mini-grove of young trees at the east end of the Alley. Not
pictured are the other two mid-sized white pines along the Alley.
Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT 2004 |
| |
|
Wildlife: The white pine’s seeds are favored by many
songbirds and small mammals; the lowers branches are
forage for rabbits and deer. The trees are great for
nesting. Other interesting forest uses of the white
pine from the USA Forest Service:
• Pocket gophers graze the roots of seedlings and
young trees
• Bald eagles build nests in living eastern white
pine, usually at a main branch located below the
crown top
• Young black bear cubs use large eastern white
pine to climb to safety. In northeastern Minnesota,
black bear mothers and cubs spent more than 95
percent of the time in April and May within 600 feet
of either an eastern white pine or an eastern
hemlock larger than 20 inches [in diameter].
|
| |
 |
| picture: the smaller of two squirrels in the top
picture, watching me take photos. |
|
|
|
|
