White Pine

Birds were not my only subjects on my day out and about.

Colton Point is nestled amidst the Tioga State Forest and has lots of oak, hickory, mountain laurel, white pine and hemlock.

There are many White Pines along the western rim and they produce an abundance of cones. White Pine cones are not my favorite. In fact they are far from the top of my list. First, they are very loosely arranged. That is, their scales are widely spaced and hardly the tight spirals of most pine cones and they are hardly symmetrical usually forming a small arc. Second, they are very, very resinous. Pick a few up off the ground and you'll be all afternoon trying to get the gummy resin off your hands unless you've ready access to lacquer thinner, rubbing alcohol and/or gasoline or kerosene. You do NOT want to park your car beneath a White Pine tree! That resin drips when it gets warm.

White Pine Cone with resin on the tips of the scales.

Third, the White Pine produces a prodigious number of cones, often in huge clusters.

Clusters of White Pine Cones on branches.

Oh, and White Pines also shed enormous amounts of needles--almost a third of their full compliment a year--that carpet the forest floor directly beneath them. Virtually nothing can grow where those needles accumulate. Call it chemical warfare, if you will.

If the pine cones do not give away the identity of the White Pine, here's a simple key to identification: The White Pine is the only pine having its needles bundled in clusters of 5. Five needles joined together at their base spells out W_H_I_T_E Pine.