Eastern white pine Pinus strobus


I call this group the three sisters--don't know how appropriate that is, since they all bear male and female cones. They are by far the biggest trees in our yard, and among the biggest trees in the neighborhood. In fact, this species is the tallest tree species in New England. At the time time of colonization forests of them would grow to nearly three hundred feet. The tallest alive today are only about half that tall, the majority much shorter. In dense forests they grow tall and straight, and were highly prized as ships masts by the British navy.

In the suburbs they sprawl somewhat, and frequently drop branches in storms. Weighted by snow and blown by strong winds the two sisters on the right dropped huge branches that caused a lot of damage in our first year. I have used most of the fallen wood up in our outdoor fire--I like the flavor of pine roasted sausages. Charlie lays in the thick bed of pine needles and spots of pine sap drop on him, making nice smelling but itchy scabs of pitch on his fur.

This summer one of the pines held a mourning dove nest, and right now a squirrel is attempting a messy shelter in the branch crotch of sister 3. We are torn between disliking these trees for the labor they generate and appreciating them for their habitat value. Eastern white pine was entry number 049 in the 365 urban species project.

Yesterday the predicted 4 inches of snow was nowhere to be found. Light flakes melted as the struck the warm ground, and it was actually quite pleasant to be outside. I'm actually too nervous, almost superstitious, to say that I'm happy about this winter's weather--it seems partly like tempting fate and partly like celebrating the good side of something really awful.
But the weather made for a dark but attractive palette. The reddish browns of the leaf litter and the greens of the mosses and lichens were damp and unusually vibrant.

( come with us )

Our friend belen1974 came over and helped with the yard work! The heavy snows this winter brought down some huge white pine boughs. We were about to hire a company to come with a wood chipper to get rid of them, when I started cutting them up with a hand saw to see if I could. We ended up making a few wood piles, and a huge pile of pine needles and twigs. It was a lot of hard work, but with our friend's help it went pretty quickly, and it felt great not to spend money to do have it done! Then we dug out the knotweed.....

Eastern white pine, Quincy. Usually the "pine" trees that people decorate this time of year are little spruce or fir saplings. To trim this mature pine with huge glass ornaments took impressive dedication (and a cherry picker, I'd bet). It warms even this Scrooge's heart.


The other decorations appealed to me as well.

I didn't take too many pictures on last week's Urban Nature Walk at the Arnold Arboretum. Maybe that's because I was too busy yakkin'. Here are two.


This giant European Beech demands climbing and (for some people apparently) incising with graffiti.


My dad and Justin talking in the pines. Something about this walk made people spread out--there were only eight of us, but we were all over the place. I actually had to call one section of the group on my cell phone to get us back together. Beautiful place, though!

See Alexis' pictures here.