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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 33: TABLE MOUNTAIN PINE
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

TABLE MOUNTAIN PINE

Pinus pungens, Lamb.

Form.—A small tree 30-50 feet high, 1-2½ feet in diameter; trunk sometimes with limbs almost to the ground, the lower drooping, the upper ascending; often bearing cones when only a few feet tall.

Leaves.—Two in a bundle, stiff, usually twisted, sharp-pointed, 1½-3 inches long; dark blue-green.

Flowers.—April-May; monoecious; staminate in long, loose spikes, anthers yellow; pistillate clustered on sides of new growth.

Fruit.—Cones large, oblong-conical, oblique at base, 2-3½ inches long, hanging on for many years; scales with very stout, curved prickles.

Bark.—On the trunk broken by fissures into irregular plates with loose red-brown scales.

Wood.—Light, soft, brittle, coarse-grained, resinous, brown with yellowish sapwood.

Range.—Pennsylvania and New Jersey to northern Georgia, in the Appalachian mountains.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Scattered sparingly in the counties along the Alleghany Mountains.

Habitat.—Usually found on dry gravelly slopes and ridges.

Notes.—This species is most easily distinguished from the other pines of the State by the very large and prickly cones and by the bundles of two stiff, short leaves. The yellow pine which has some of its leaves grouped in twos has very small and nearly smooth cones. Not valuable for lumber; used chiefly for fuel and charcoal.