Pinus strobus.
*The workshop was "Seeing The (Local) Forest For The Trees" by Karen Buschert
Sunday was cool after a very warm Saturday (29 degrees Celsius) which ended in high winds and lots of driving rain. But it was still a nice day to head out for a walk, so we took ourselves to the park near the river.
We played some baseball, then My Girl and I left the boys and went for a short walk to the Bridge To Nowhere. As we stood atop the bridge I noticed a coniferous tree about a hundred
feet away that I wanted to take a closer look at. I could tell, even from that distance, that it had long needles and it was quite a light green. Recalling a workshop* I had recently attended at the KW home educators' conference about local trees and native species (plant and animal alike), I wondered if it was one of the native trees the speaker had referred to.
The tree's needles were 3-4" in length, 5 per cluster. Sure enough, it was the White Pine that I had learned a little about! I was so excited to have been able to identify this tree on my own, without my field guide!
Today, when I looked it up in my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees, I learned the following:
- The (Eastern) White Pine is the only pine tree in the guide that has 5 needles in each bundle
- White Pines are the largest North Eastern conifers, reaching 100', but my specimen was less than 1/2 the height of the neighbouring tree; it was probably young.
- White Pines add one row of branches each year, so I could probably go back to my specimen and determine an approximate age
I now think that I could accurately identify any White Pine that I come across! I guess I really am learning, one specimen at a time!
*The workshop was "Seeing The (Local) Forest For The Trees" by Karen Buschert
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