Gymnosperms (Seed Producing Plants: Conifers, Cycads, Ginkgo) • Earth.com

Green spruce

(Pinus pungens)

galery
en

Description

Table Mountain pine, Pinus pungens, also called hickory pine, prickly pine, or mountain pine, is a small pine native to the Appalachian Mountains in the United States.Pinus pungens is a tree of modest size (6–12 metres (20–39 ft)), and has a rounded, irregular shape. The needles are in bundles of two, occasionally three, yellow-green to mid green, fairly stout, and 4–7 centimetres (1+1⁄2–3 in) long. The pollen is released early compared to other pines in the area which minimizes hybridization. The cones are very short-stalked (almost sessile), ovoid, pale pinkish to yellowish buff, and 4–9 centimetres (1+1⁄2–3+1⁄2 in) long; each scale bears a stout, sharp spine 4–10 millimetres (5⁄32–25⁄64 in) long. Sapling trees can bear cones in as little as 5 years. P. pungens prefers dry conditions and is mostly found on rocky slopes, favoring higher elevations, from 300–1,760 metres (980–5,770 ft) altitude. It commonly grows as single scattered trees or small groves, not in large forests like most other pines, and needs periodic disturbances for seedling establishment. The three tallest known ones are in Paris Mountain State Park, South Carolina; they are 26.85 to 29.96 metres (88 ft 1 in to 98 ft 4 in) tall. Pinus pungens is the Lonesome Pine of the 1908 novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox, and popularized in the Laurel and Hardy film Way out West. The blue spruce (Picea pungens), also commonly known as green spruce, white spruce, Colorado spruce, or Colorado blue spruce, is a species of spruce tree. It is native to North America, and is found in USDA growing zones 1 through 7. It is found naturally in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It has been widely introduced elsewhere and is used as an ornamental tree in many places far beyond its native range. The blue spruce has blue-green colored needles and is a coniferous tree. In the wild, Picea pungens grows to about 23 m (75 ft), but when planted in parks and gardens it seldom exceeds 15 m (49 ft) tall by 5 m (16 ft) wide. It is a columnar or conical evergreen conifer with densely growing horizontal branches. It has scaly grey bark on the trunk with yellowish-brown branches. Waxy gray-green leaves, up to 3 cm (1 in) long, are arranged radially on the shoots which curve upwards. The pale brown cones are up to 10 cm (4 in) long. Male cones are found on the entire tree, whereas the female cones are found at the top of the tree. This helps to facilitate cross-pollination.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Coniferophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order:Pinales
Family:Pinaceae
Genus:Pinus
News coming your way
The biggest news about our planet delivered to you each day