Pinus contorta

Pinus contorta is in the pine or Pinaceae family and is native to western North America, from large parts of British Columbia in Canada continuing through to New Mexico in the United States. It is a fire-dependent species, relying on it to maintain healthy populations of diverse ages.

It is recognized as having 3 subspecies:

• Shore pine (P. contorta var. contorta) occurs in a narrow band along the west coast of North America.
• Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine (or just lodgepole pine) (P. contorta var. latifolia) occurs from interior Alaska and the Northwest Territories east to Saskatchewan and the Black Hills of South Dakota, and south to Colorado, central Utah, and eastern Oregon.
• Sierra Lodgepole pine (P. contorta var. murrayana) occurs in the Cascade Range of southern Washington, Oregon and California, and in the Sierra Nevada and Klamath Mountains.

The main commercial species, Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine, in the drier interior areas, is generally up to 35 m tall and up to 50 cm in diameter, and is harvested extensively wherever it is found.

• It is a 2-needle pine, with needles up to 8 cm long (on short shoots), twisted, often pointed, sheath 3–6 mm long; needles persist on the tree for 3–6 years. Branches are in yearly whorls.
• Species is monoecious; male pollen cones are yellow-red, 5–15 mm long, cylindrical and clustered at branch tips; females are reddish, at branch tips, maturing in 2 years.
• Seed cones are 3–6 cm long, nearly sessile (no stems), with prickles on the scales. Cones are mostly serotinous, opening only in wildfires and after heavy beetle attacks.
• Bark is thin, grayish brown, with many small scales.