''Pinus sabiniana'' (sometimes spelled ''P. sabineana''), with
vernacular name
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
s including towani pine, foothill pine, gray pine, bull pine, and digger pine,
is a
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Some sources discourage using the name "digger pine," considering it pejorative
("digger" was a slur commonly used to refer to Indigenous Americans in the Great Basin and California).
Description
The ''Pinus sabiniana'' tree typically grows to , but can reach feet in height. The needles of the pine are in fascicles (bundles) of three, distinctively pale gray-green, sparse and drooping, and grow to in length. The seed
cones
A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex.
A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...
are large and heavy, in length and almost as wide as they are long.
When fresh, they weigh from , rarely over .
The male cones grow at the base of shoots on the lower branches.
File:Pinus sabiniana pollen cones Pinnacles, California.jpg, Pollen cones
File:Pinus sabineana 00061.JPG, Bark
File:J20161101-0079—Gray pine cone, pine nuts, and resin—RPBG (30547385050).jpg, Cone, seeds, and Resin
File:Pinus sabiniana (Gray Pine) - foliage (30485878313).jpg, Foliage
Distribution and habitat
![Pinus sabiniana distribution map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Pinus_sabiniana_distribution_map.svg)
''Pinus sabiniana'' grows at elevations between sea level and and is common in the northern and interior portions of the
California Floristic Province
The California Floristic Province (CFP) is a floristic province with a Mediterranean-type climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with a distinctive flora similar to other regions with a winter rainfall and summer drought climate ...
. It is found throughout the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
and
Coast Ranges
The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although the ...
foothills
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograp ...
that ring the
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
San Joaquin and interior valleys; the
Transverse
Transverse may refer to:
*Transverse engine, an engine in which the crankshaft is oriented side-to-side relative to the wheels of the vehicle
*Transverse flute, a flute that is held horizontally
* Transverse force (or ''Euler force''), the tangen ...
and
Peninsular Ranges
The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, which ...
; and
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...
sky islands
Sky islands are isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. The term originally referred to those found on the Mexican Plateau, and has extended to similarly isolated high-elevation forests. The isolation has si ...
.
The Native Plant Society of Oregon documents multiple specimens in
Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon is a region of the U.S. state of Oregon south of Lane County and generally west of the Cascade Range, excluding the southern Oregon Coast. Counties include Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, and Josephine. It includes the Southern Oreg ...
as well. It is adapted to long, hot, dry summers and is found in areas with an unusually wide range of precipitation: from an average of per year at the edge of the Mojave to in parts of the Sierra Nevada.
It prefers rocky, well drained soil, but also grows in serpentine soil and heavy, poorly drained clay soils. It commonly occurs in association with ''
Quercus douglasii
''Quercus douglasii'', known as blue oak, is a species of oak endemic to (and found only in) California, common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is California's most drought-tolerant deciduous oak, and is a dominan ...
'', and "Oak/Foothill Pine vegetation" (also known as "Oak/Gray Pine vegetation") is used as a description of a type of
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
characteristic within the
California chaparral and woodlands
The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
in California, providing a sparse
overstory
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant cropping or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns.
In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns an ...
above a canopy of the
oak woodland
An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...
.
File:Pinus sabiniana SacramentoValley.jpg, ''P. sabiniana'' in chaparral habitat in Sacramento Valley
File:Pinus sabiniana Pinnacles NM 8.jpg, ''P. sabiniana'' in mountain foothills habitat in Pinnacles National Monument
Ecology and uses
''Pinus sabiniana'' needles are the only known food of the
caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...
s of the
Gelechiid moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
''
Chionodes
''Chionodes'' is a genus of moths of the family Gelechiidae. It is distributed throughout much of the world. The larvae of many species use the Douglas fir as a host plant.
Species
*The formosella species-group
**''Chionodes formosella''-complex ...
sabinianus''. Fossil evidence suggests that it has only recently become adapted to the Mediterranean climate as its closest relatives are part of the
Madrean pine-oak woodlands
The Madrean Region (named after the Sierra Madre Occidental) is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in North America, as delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. It occupies arid or semiarid areas in the southwestern United ...
found at higher elevations in the southwest US and Mexico. Some Native American groups relied heavily on sweet pine nuts for food and are thought to have contributed to the current distribution pattern, including the large gap in distribution in
Tulare County
Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...
. Native Americans also consumed the roots.
Special uses
Protein and fat nutritional value of the seed are similar to
Pinus pinea seeds and figured in the local indigenous diet.
[ ]
Wood uses historically were determined by its particular characteristics, e.g., 0.43 mean
specific gravity
Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...
nearly equal to Douglas-fir (
Pseudotsuga menziesii
The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
);
strength properties similar to
ponderosa pine
''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...
;
Kraft pulps high in
bursting with
tensile strength
Ultimate tensile strength (UTS), often shortened to tensile strength (TS), ultimate strength, or F_\text within equations, is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials t ...
comparable to some northern
conifer
Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...
pulps; and
foothill
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topograp ...
stands loggable in winter, when higher-altitude species were inaccessible. However, the high amounts of
resin
In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on natu ...
and
compression wood, the often crooked form, heavy weight, and low stand density, made it expensive otherwise to log, transport and process. Commercial value decreased by the 1960s,
to limited use for
railroad tie
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer ...
s, box "shook",
pallet
A pallet (also called a skid) is a flat transport structure, which supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, a pallet jack, a front loader, a jacking device, or an erect crane. A pallet is the structural foundat ...
stock, and
chips
''CHiPs'' is an American crime drama television series created by Rick Rosner and originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. It follows the lives of two motorcycle officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The serie ...
.
It may still offer potential as windbreak
shelterbelt
A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the edges ...
plantings.
The main turpentine constituent,
heptane
Heptane or ''n''-heptane is the straight-chain alkane with the chemical formula H3C(CH2)5CH3 or C7H16. When used as a test fuel component in anti-knock test engines, a 100% heptane fuel is the zero point of the octane rating scale (the 100 point ...
, an alkane hydrocarbon, at about 3 percent of needle and twig oil,
is unusual in botany; the only other source in nature perhaps being the
Pittosporum resiniferum
''Pittosporum resiniferum'', the resin cheesewood or petroleum nut, is a tree that grows in the Philippines and Malaysia, particularly in the wilderness surrounding the Mayon Volcano and in the Cordillera of the Philippines and Mount Kinabalu of ...
known as "petroleum nut" or kerosene tree.
Taxonomy
Common name
The name digger pine supposedly came from the observation that the
Paiute
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...
foraged for its seeds by digging around the base of the tree, although it is more likely that the term was first applied to the people; "Digger Indians" was in common use in California literature from the 1800s. The historically more common name ''digger pine'' is still in widespread use. The
Jepson Manual
''The Jepson Manual'' is a flora of the vascular plants that are either native to or naturalized in California. Botanists often refer to the book simply as ''Jepson''. It is produced by the University and Jepson Herbaria, of the University of C ...
advises avoiding this name as the authors believe "digger" is pejorative in origin.
It is also sometimes thought of as a
pinyon pine
The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in southwestern North America, especially in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The trees yield edible nuts, which are a staple food of Native Americans, and widely eaten as a snack and as an ingredient in New ...
, though it does not belong to that group.
Botanical name
![FoothillPineCone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/FoothillPineCone.jpg)
The scientific
botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the '' International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the ''Intern ...
with the standard spelling ''sabiniana'' commemorates
Joseph Sabine
Joseph Sabine FRS ( ; 6 June 1770 – 24 January 1837) was an English lawyer, naturalist and writer on horticulture.
Life and work
Sabine was born into a prominent Anglo-Irish family in Tewin, Hertfordshire, the eldest son of Joseph Sabine ...
, secretary of the
Horticultural Society of London
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...
. Some botanists proposed a new spelling ''sabineana'', because they were confused with Latin grammar. The proposal has not been accepted by the relevant authorities (i.e.
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...
,
The Jepson Manual
''The Jepson Manual'' is a flora of the vascular plants that are either native to or naturalized in California. Botanists often refer to the book simply as ''Jepson''. It is produced by the University and Jepson Herbaria, of the University of Cali ...
or
Germplasm Resources Information Network
Germplasm Resources Information Network or GRIN is an online USDA National Genetic Resources Program software project to comprehensively manage the computer database for the holdings of all plant germplasm collected by the National Plant Germplasm ...
(GRIN).
The GRIN notes that the spelling ''sabiniana'' agrees with a provision in the Vienna Code of the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all those "trad ...
, the governing body of botanical nomenclature. In that code, recommendation 60.2C states that personal names can be Latinized in species epithets: 'Sabine' is Latinised to ''sabinius'', with the addition of the suffix "-anus" (pertaining to) the word becomes ''sabiniana'' (In Latin, trees are feminine, irrespective if the word ends with a masculine suffix, i.e. ''pinus'').
[International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. 2006]
Recommendation 60C.2
Accessed online: 1 October 2010. The GRIN database notes that Sabine's last name is not correctable and therefore ''Pinus sabiniana'' is the proper name for the species.
Notes
References
*
* A. Farjon (2005). ''Pines: Drawings and descriptions of the genus Pinus''. Brill.
*
* Discovery Channel (2010), ''MythBusters
''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television program, developed by Peter Rees and produced by Australia's Beyond Television Productions. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast internatio ...
''
Episode 138
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
USDA PLANTS Treatment for ''Pinus sabiniana'' (California foothill pine)
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2473331
sabiniana
Endemic flora of California
Trees of the Southwestern United States
Flora of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Flora of the California desert regions
Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands
Garden plants of North America
Ornamental trees
Drought-tolerant trees
Butterfly food plants
Edible nuts and seeds