Template:Short description Template:Speciesbox
Table Mountain pine,<ref name=GRIN>Template:GRIN</ref> Pinus pungens, also called hickory pine, prickly pine,<ref name=GRIN/> or mountain pine,<ref name="Moore2008">Template:Cite book</ref> is a small pine native to the Appalachian Mountains in the United States.
DescriptionEdit
Pinus pungens is a tree of modest size (Template:Convert), and has a rounded, irregular shape. The needles are in bundles of two, occasionally three, yellow-green to mid green, fairly stout, and Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert long; each scale bears a stout, sharp spine Template:Convert long. Sapling trees can bear cones in as little as 5 years.
Buds ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, Template:Convert, resinous.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MorphologyEdit
Pinus pungens is a native, slow-growing conifer. It is often small in stature and exceedingly limby.<ref>Della-Bianca, Lino. 1990. Pinus pungens Lamb. Table Mountain pine. In: Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H., technical coordinators. Silvics of North America. Volume 1. Conifers. Agric. Handb. 654. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: 425-432.</ref> It rarely grows beyond 66 feet (20 m) tall, though the tallest individual recorded was 95 feet (29 m).<ref name=":110">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pinus pungens is typically around Template:Convert diameter at breast height (DBH). The maximum recorded DBH was Template:Convert.<ref name=":110"/> The trunks of Pinus pungens are often crooked and have irregularly shaped cross-sections. Older trees tend to be flat-topped, while young trees can vary in form from that of a large bush when open-grown, to slender with relatively small limbs when grown in a dense stand.<ref name=":34">Template:Cite journal</ref> Table Mountain pine typically has long, thick limbs on much of the trunk even in closed canopy stands.<ref name=":34"/>
Male cones are Template:Convert long. Female cones are sessile and range from Template:Convert long.<ref name=":34"/> Cone scales are tough and armed with broad, upwardly curving spines.<ref name=":110"/>
TaxonomyEdit
Pinus pungens was described by British botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert (1761–1842) in 1805.
Distribution and habitatEdit
DistributionEdit
Pinus pungens distribution is centered in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, primarily in the Blue Ridge and Valley-and-Ridge provinces of the Appalachian Highlands. Its range extends from central Pennsylvania, southwest to eastern West Virginia and southward into North Carolina, Tennessee, and the extreme northeast corner of Georgia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are outlying populations of Pinus pungens to the east of the Appalachians in the piedmont often on isolated peaks and monadnocks<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HabitatEdit
Pinus pungens prefers dry conditions and is mostly found on rocky slopes and peaks, favoring higher elevations averaging of ~300-1700 meters.<ref name=":110"/>
EcologyEdit
Pinus pungens prefers dry conditions and is mostly found on rocky slopes, rocky knobs, and peaks, favoring higher elevations, from Template:Convert 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. Throughout the Appalachian Mountain range, P. pungens is a component of conifer-dominated communities along combination with other pine species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The three tallest known Pinus pungens are in Paris Mountain State Park, South Carolina; they are Template:Convert tall.<ref name=":0" />
Fire ecologyEdit
Fire histories developed for two Pinus pungens communities in southwestern Virginia revealed that between 1758 and 1944, fires burned approximately every 5 to 10 years during the dormant season.<ref name=":110"/><ref name=":45">Sutherland, Elaine & Grissino-Mayer, H & Woodhouse, C & Covington, William & Horn, S & Huckaby, Laurie & Kerr, R & Kush, John & Moorte, M & Plumb, T. (1995). Two centuries of fire in a southwestern Virginia Pinus pungens community.</ref> Lack of Pinus pungens and increasing dominance of trees belonging to the Fagaceae (Oaks & Beeches) appear to coincide with fire exclusion practices initiated after 1950 resulting in a lack of regeneration.<ref name=":110"/><ref name=":45"/>
Fire adaptationsEdit
Pinus pungens has adaptations to fire that are consistent with both long- and short-return-interval fire regimes.<ref name=":110"/><ref name=":45"/> Medium-thick to thick bark, a large rooting habit, self sufficient self-pruning limbs, and pitch/sap production to seal wounds are characteristics of Pinus pungens that suggest it is adapted to survive frequent, low-severity fire up to medium intensity fire.<ref name=":110"/><ref name=":45"/> One major adaptation of Pinus pungens to fire are the long dormant serotinous cones that open and spread seeds after high heat exposure.<ref name=":34"/><ref name=":45"/><ref name=":110"/>
Fire regimeEdit
Pinus pungens was historically subject to a full range of fire frequencies and types: frequent low-severity surface fires, mixed-severity fires, and stand-replacement fires.<ref name=":110"/><ref>Barden, Lawrence S. 1979. Serotiny and seed viability of Pinus pungens in the southern Appalachians. Castanea. 44(1): 44-47</ref> Fire occurs infrequently on contemporary Appalachian landscapes where Pinus pungens is common.<ref>Lafon, Charles W.; Kutac, Martin J. 2003. Effects of ice storms, southern pine beetle infestation, and fire on Table Mountain pine forests of southwestern Virginia. Physical Geography. 24(6): 502-519.</ref>
Current age structure of Pinus pungens suggest fire is an important influence on stand structure and regeneration as it regulates and clears the land periodically.<ref>Zobel, Donald B. 1969. Factors affecting the distribution of Pinus pungens, an Appalachian endemic. Ecological Monographs.</ref><ref name=":110"/> This can be seen in areas of the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia where large Table Mountain pines have not regenerated due to lack of needed conditions to rejuvenate both the soil and trees.<ref name=":110"/><ref>Turrill, Nicole L.; Buckner, Edward R.; Waldrop, Thomas A. 1997. Pinus pungens Lam. (Table Mountain pine): a threatened species without fire? In: Greenlee, Jason M., ed. Proceedings, 1st conference on fire effects on rare and endangered species and habitats; 1995 November 13-16; Coeur d'Alene, ID. Fairfield, WA: International Association of Wildland Fire:</ref> Large gaps in year tree classes are the result of fire suppression.<ref name=":110"/><ref>Williams, Charles E.; Johnson, W. Carter. 1990. Age structure and the maintenance of Pinus pungens in pine-oak forests of southwestern Virginia. The American Midland Naturalist.</ref>
Conservation statusEdit
Pinus pungens is considered secure in Virginia and apparently secure in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its considered Vulnerable in Georgia, Critically Imperiled in New Jersey, and Exotic in Illinois.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ReferencesEdit
- Farjon, A. & Frankis, M. P. (2002). Pinus pungens. Curtis's Botanical Magazine 19: 97–103.