Nantucket Pines
by Dr. Sarah D. Oktay
Managing Director UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station
There are many evergreen species and pines on Nantucket. Some are native and some are interlopers. Each time I walk in the woods whether at Windswept or Shawkemo or the State Forest, I am entranced by the variety of the pines we have. Nantucket’s evergreens such as pines, spruces, hollies, and cedars are able to survive winter because they have shored up their defenses to the cold. Their needle-like or scale-like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid inside their cells contains substances that resist freezing. Thus the foliage of evergreens can safely withstand all but the most severe winter conditions. Evergreen needles survive for some years but eventually fall because of old age. On Nantucket, the salt content of the surrounding ocean can also lend some protection against freezing temperatures by raising the temperature of freezing water. We have areas on island that include holly maritime forests and pine barrens.
Pitch pine is our “native” pine species. The Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida, is a small-to-medium sized (6 to 30 m) pine, native to eastern North America. This species occasionally hybridizes with other pine species such as Loblolly Pine (P. taeda), Shortleaf Pine (P. echinata), and Pond Pine (P. serotina); the last is treated as a subspecies of Pitch Pine by some botanists.
The Pitch Pine is found mainly in the northeastern United States, from Maine and Ohio to Kentucky and northern Georgia. A few stands occur in southern Quebec and Ontario. This pine occupies a variety of habitats from dry, acidic sandy uplands to swampy lowlands, and can survive in very poor conditions; it is the primary tree of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. And it is the primary pine species on Nantucket, where it can survive the salt spray and grow relatively large in spite of our high winds. Salt spray from our most recent hurricane, Irene (tropical force when it got here with southerly winds) has covered much of the foliage on the south side of the island.
The needles are in fascicles (bundles or clusters) of three, about 6 to 13 cm in length, and are stout (over one mm broad) and often slightly twisted. In fact, this bundle of three needles is one of the best ways to identify a pitch pine. My botanical walking buddy knows a lot about pines from her education and field work in Maine and New Hampshire and she taught me the “three needles = 3 strikes and you’re out!” pitch pine mnemonic. We wander the state forest, dog in tow, to check out the growth and variety of all the somewhat haphazardly planted large pines there. If you look closely as you walk around the state forest, you’ll soon obtain a pine tutorial from the variety of pines and evergreens that can be found there.
Pitch pines have cones that are 4 to 7 cm long and oval with prickles on the scales. The species is unusual in often having shoots (called epicormic sprouts) that can grow directly from the trunk. This is an adaptation to fire, enabling trees to re-sprout after fire has killed the crown; the thick bark protects the trunk from damage unless the fire is very severe. Burnt trees often form stunted, twisted trees with multiple trunks as a result of the resprouting. This characteristic also makes it a popular species for bonsai. In the past, it was a major source of pitch and timber for ship building, mine timbers, and railroad ties because the wood's high resin content preserves it from decay.
We have a few Eastern White pines (Pinus strobes) on island and they have been here since at least the 1940s according to Mabel Rice’s book on the trees of Nantucket (see more details below). In forests, white pine trunks are usually straight and free of branches for two-thirds or more of their height. White pine can live to be 450 years old, reaching heights of 30 to 50 meters and diameters of one to 1.5 meters. White pine needles are 6 to 12 centimeters long and clustered in groups of 5. Pinus strobus is the state tree of Maine and Michigan and is the Ontario arboreal emblem. Unique identifying markers are the tree's branching rings, which are added each year, and the only 5-needled eastern pine. The needles are straight, flexible, soft to touch, dark blue-green in color with finely toothed edges. They stay on trees for two or three years before turning brown and falling off in the autumn. White Pine needles contain five times the amount of Vitamin C (by weight) of lemons and make an excellent tisane. The cambium, which is the layer of cells between the bark layers and the sapwood is edible if you are really desperate. It is also a source of resveratrol. The name “Adirondack” is an Iroquois word which means tree-eater and referred to their neighbors (more commonly known as the Algonquians) who collected the inner bark during times of winter starvation.
My guess this term was not use in a playful or respectful way. The white soft inner bark (cambial layer) was carefully separated from the hard, dark brown bark and dried. When pounded this product can be used as flour or added to stretch other starchy products. Linnaeus noted in the 18th century that cattle and pigs fed pine bark bread grew well but he personally did not like the taste. The young staminate cones were stewed by the Ojibwe Indians with meat and were said to be sweet and not pitchy. In addition, the seeds are sweet and nutritious but not as good as those of some of the western nut pines.
Pine resin has been used to waterproof baskets, pails, and boats and the sap can be processed to make turpentine. In addition, the sap apparently has a number of quite efficient antimicrobials. The Chippewa even used it successfully to treat gangrenous wounds. Generally a wet pulp from the inner bark is applied to the wounds or pine tar can be mixed with beeswax or butter and used as a salve to prevent infection. Pine tar mixed with beer can be used to remove tapeworms (flat worms) or nematodes (round worms) or to at least help you not care about your tapeworms and nematodes as much and pine tar mixed with sulfur is useful to treat dandruff (may cause premature balding, use as directed). Pine tar is produced by slowly burning pine roots, branches, or small trunks in a partially smothered flame. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_White_Pine)
When walking around the island you may spot Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine (or even “Scotch Pine, see below), which is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia (including Lapland). In the north of its range, it occurs from sea level to 1,000 m, while in the south of its range it is a high altitude mountain tree, growing at 1,200–2,600 m altitude. It is readily identified by its combination of short, blue-green leaves and orange-red bark.
You can also find Jack Pines (Pinus banksiana) on island. These pines are known by a variety of names including Eastern Jack, Gray Pine, Black Pine, Black Jack Pine, Prince's Pine, Princess Pine, Banks Pine, Banksian Pine, Hudson Bay Pine, Scrub Pine, and Northern Scrub Pine and they were first described by Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), a British naturalist and botanist on Cook's first great voyage (1768-1771) who had at least 75 different species of plants named after him. This pine is distributed in Canada and the North central and north eastern United states and is very hardy. It establishes after fire in boreal forests, tundra transition areas, dry flats and hills, and on sandy soils; it also occurs on sand dunes, rock outcrops, bald rock ridges, and lake shores. Jack Pines grow in dry, acidic sandy soils with a lower pH limit of 4.0, but also loamy soil, thin soil over bedrock, peat, and soil over permafrost.
Japanese black pine is an exotic plant that is scourge of several areas on island and being removed at Cisco and in other locations. Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii) has long been a favorite in coastal plantings because of its excellent salt spray and soil salt tolerance and its function as a wind screen and 'backbone' evergreen and were planted on the island in the 1890; by the 1940s, many of them had become infested by black turpentine beetles and are dying now. The turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus terebrans) frequently carries with it the bluestain fungus (Leptographium spp.) and they typically feed on the inner bark of the lower four feet of the trunk and may even girdle the tree. Characteristic signs of turpentine beetle injury include long clumps of hardened sap around the lower trunk and reddish sawdust around the very small entry holes. In addition, the introduction of the bluestain fungi can destroy cambial tissue and compound the injury caused by the beetles. A pine affected by this pest complex will show a yellowing or rusty browning throughout the entire tree before the foliage begins to die and needles begin to drop, often within the year. Another pest equally capable of killing these pines is the pinewood nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) (http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/blackpines.html)
I found an extremely interesting article from the August 9, 1867 issue of the New York Times entitled “Up on the Walk - Island Peculiarities – The Town Crier - Ancient Customs – Antipathy to Trees – Nantucket Clam Chowder” (http://nytimes.com) and noticed a strangely familiar writing style. It is perfect reading for our end-of-summer time on island. I found it looking for initial planting of some of our pine stands, which people planted for wildlife value, for windbreaks, for when they missed their pine forest of home, or in some cases, to annoy the neighbors. One of the many anecdotes mentioned in the article was traveling on a “Polpis Squantum” and seeing a newly planted patch of young pines. At one time, islanders really did not want trees on island; they were considered buggy and dirty and something that marred the landscape. The article even decries the bothersome habit of trees to soak in fog and drip it on hapless people below.
No mention of pine trees and Nantucket could leave out the discovery of the Nantucket Pine tip moth (http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/nantucket/nantucket.htm, US Forest Service). The Nantucket pine tip moth, Rhyacionia frustrana, is a common insect pest of young pine stands in the eastern and southern United States. It was first reported as a pest in 1879 by Comstock and its life history was described in 1883. When first described by Comstock 100 years ago, R. frustrana was very common on Nantucket Island near Massachusetts. (http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsbdev2_042974.pdf). Growing tips, especially in the tree tops, are tunneled out and killed by as many as 30 larvae per tip. The unsightly, collapsed, brown, dead tips result in a proliferation of lateral buds which then also become infested. The continued killing of the top tips results in a low, spherical, bushy tree rather than one with the usual conical shape. (http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/repositoryfiles/ca3404p6-62752.pdf).
Mabel Agnes Rice, who was the Assistant Director of the Natural Science Department at the Maria Mitchell Association wrote a very thorough account of the island’s trees and shrubs called, naturally, Trees and Shrubs of Nantucket (http://www.archive.org/stream/treesshrubsofnan00rice/ treesshrubsofnan00rice_djvu.txt). She starred those trees originally listed in Bicknell’s inventory of the island’s plants from 1908-1919 which I have referred to a few times in this column and Bicknell also listed introduced species, so we do have a method for determining what trees have been introduced. According to the text, the following pine, cedar, juniper, balsam, fir and spruce species were found on island, all of which were identified mainly by their needles or leaves: White Pine Pinus Strobus L. (dwarf branches not persistent: 5 needles in a cluster); Pitch Pine, Yellow Pine Pinus rigida Mill. (Dwarf branches persistent, roughening of the bark of the twigs; needles 3 in a cluster); Mugo Pine also known as Swiss Mountain Pine Pinus Mugo Turra 1765 (needles 2 in a cluster straight, bright green and 2 inches long, pyramidal tree or dwarf shrub); Scotch Pine Pinus sylvestris L. (needles about 2 inches long, twisted, silvery-green); Black Pine, Pinus Thunbergil Pari (needles 3-5 inches long, stiff, dark green); Red Pine Pinus resinosa Ait. (needles 4-6 inches long, slender, flexible, bright green); Chinese Pine Pinus tabulae fornls Carr. (Latin name is not corroborated elsewhere); European Larch Larix decidua Mill; (needles about 1 inch long, cylindrical, several in a cluster, arising from wart-like, persistent dwarf branches); Bald Cypress Taxodlum disttchum (L.) (needles about 1 inch long, flat, thin, light green, set singly in 2 rows on the twig); Blue Spruce Picea tlauca (Moench.) (Leaf blue-green with a whitened surface, tip curved); White Spruce Picea canadensis (Mill.) (leaf light-green, somewhat ill-smelling—not very nice to say); Norway Spruce, Picea abies (a native of Europe and a very pretty spruce: looks like a Christmas tree planted in the forest) and Japanese Cedar Cryptomeria japonlca D. Don, aromatic Balsam Fir Abies balsamea (L. ) Mill., White Fir Abies irandls Lindl., and our very common Eastern Red Cedar Juniperus virginiana L. in addition to several species only identified down to their genus.
Last year in this column (www.yesterdaysisland.com/2010/science/5-orange.php) you’ll find interesting characteristics of Eastern red cedar including its bizarre Cedar Apple Rust.
Last but not least, is Arbor Vitae (some of the only New Latin I remember for “tree of Life”) also sometimes known as northern White Cedar and nicely pruned by deer at the field station (Thuja occldentalls L.) (Branches flat, making the foliage appear as if pressed). I highly recommend bookmarking Mabel Rice’s book and looking through it to familiarize yourself with the many plants on island so you can compare it to Bicknell’s and Peter Dunwiddies’ prior or post surveys. I also recommend Peter Dunwiddies’ many books and articles including “Forest and Heath, the Shaping of Vegetation on Nantucket Island” (found at http://www.jstor.org/pss/4005122 accessed September 4th, 2011).
Next time you have a quiet moment, wander through the State Forest off of Lover’s Lane and Rugged Road and New Old South Road and check out the many pines who make Nantucket their transplanted home. There are some delightful pine trees that can be found on Land Bank and Nantucket Conservation Foundation and Massachusetts Audubon trails all over the island. This is a perfect season to explore our evergreen and deciduous tree hideaways now that fall is almost here and the rhythms of the island are slowing down.
