Ponderosa Pine

So far, I've discussed two relatively rare species: Port Orford Cedar and Weeping Spruce. In contrast, Ponderosa Pine is the western conifer. Its big, its useful, and its everywhere. We won't need to skulk around the Klamath Mountains in northwestern California to find Ponderosa Pine; I pass several just walking Brian over to his daycare.

Ponderosa Pine is a pine. (This may seem obvious, but Port Orford Cedar is not a Cedar, Douglas Fir is not a fir, etc.) The distinctive feature of pines is that the needles come in bundles of 1 to 5. The number of needles in a bundle is a good clue to the species. For example, Ponderosa Pine has 3 long needles per bundle.

The bark of Ponderosa Pine is fairly distinctive. It is gray with orange-ish regions and dark-colored cracks, and breaks off in thin puzzle-piece shapes.

Ponderosa Pine is so widespread that there is inevitably considerable variation within the species. This leads inevitably to a question: How different can two trees be while still being considered the same species? There seems to be no definitive answer, so botanists squabble and throw around terms like "subspecies" and "variety". Here are some interesting cases, which I'll discuss later in more detail.

• Jeffrey Pine is a distinct species similar to Ponderosa Pine that generally lives at higher elevations and is more prone to exploding. More about that later.
  
• Washoe Pine may be a rare species that grows near the elbow of California, or may be a subspecies of Ponderosa Pine that grows commonly elsewhere.
• Arizona Pine typically has 5 needles per bundle, but sometimes has only 4 or even 3, like Ponderosa Pine. It is otherwise similar to Ponderosa Pine, but thinking about the relationship is evolving.
  

How should we visit Ponderosa Pine? The goal is to see the conifers of California in their natural habitat. So park trees by the daycare don't count. But there are still a ton of Ponderosa Pines, so how do we make a special trip?

Well, the largest Ponderosa Pine in the United States was discovered in 2008:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/shastatrinity/news/2008/releases/014-may23-big-tree.shtml

I think that tree should be our target. The location is described as, "a few miles north of Forest Glen Campground on the South Fork Management Unit of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest."

Another article says:

"Forester Tim Lovitt was taking a break for lunch last summer when a massive tree on the other side of the meadow made him put his food down. [...] There are not immediate plans to cut a trail to it."

A July 2008 article says:

"California National Guard's "Task Force Pick" came to the rescue when the wildfires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest threatened the nation's tallest Ponderosa Pine tree. [...] With low-hanging branches, the tree was immediately threatened by sparks and embers from nearby fires that could easily ignite the tree if the wind shifted just right. The team of Guardsmen spent hours trimming these low-hanging threats and also cleared a wide area around the tree that would eliminate any fuel source on the ground. Two Guard members spent the entire day cutting down neighboring trees, and the rest of the team stacked piles of wood that would burn a safe distance from the tree. They also set up a water sprinkler system that would keep the cleared area moist."

(Sounds like they tried hard, but I wonder if the tree is vulnerable to wind without neighbors?)

The challenges will be to locate this tree precisely and then get there without a trail.