Pitch Pine
Pinus rigida · Pinaceae · 리기다소나무
How to spot it
Three needles per bundle, strong sprouting of short shoots and needles from the trunk, and prickles on the cone scales.
Look
- Leaves
- Needles grow in bundles of 3 (rarely 4); they are stiff and twisted, 39.4-129 mm long.
- Flowers
- Flowers in May; monoecious. Male flowers cluster at the base of new shoots and are 12.3-23.7 mm long.
- Fruit
- Cones are egg-shaped to conical, ripening brown, 39.4-67.8 mm long, with prickle-like points on the scale tips; they stay on the branches for a long time after ripening. Fruiting is in September of the next year.
- Bark
- Bark is reddish brown and deeply fissured lengthwise.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Introduced species native to North America.
- Ecology
- Grows on poor, dry or moist flatland or mountain sites.