Another of the giants: the incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens)

Naturalist and mountaineer John Muir (1838-1914) was fascinated with giant conifers rivaling Sequoia trees in stature and strength. In his book The Mountains of California he “praised” the Douglas spruce, ponderosa pine and sugar pine, including its sugar (“nanómba” in the Washoe language). Here is how Muir introduced another evergreen tree of western North American, the incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), for which he used the scientific synonym Libocedrus decurrens [1]:

The Incense Cedar is another of the giants quite generally distributed throughout this portion [Sierra Nevada] of the forests, without exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making extensive groves. It ascends to about 5000 feet on the warmer hillsides, and reaches the climate most congenial to it at about from 3000 to 4000 feet, growing vigorously at this elevation on all kinds of soil, and in particular it is capable of enduring more moisture about its roots than any of its companions, excepting only the Sequoia.

John Muir, 1894.

Muir sketched an  incense cedar in its prime—standing straight, erect, with a columnar crown; although he mentioned that older trees often show irregular growth with large, elbowed branches growing parallel to the main trunk.
 
Calocedrus decurrens is as also known as California post cedar, white cedar and bastard cedar (see, for example, Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) of David's Grove in Reno and the Calocedrus decurrens entry in the Gymnosperm Database) .

Keywords: conifers, Cupressaceae, natural history, incense cedar synonyms, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 120 to 122  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

The king of the spruces: Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga douglasii)

Today the Douglas spruce is known worldwide as a timber-producing conifer. This evergreen tree is also used in landscaping and as a Christmas tree. Mature trees can be almost as tall as redwood trees. They definitely impressed the Scottish-born naturalist and mountaineer John Muir, when he explored the American Northwest during the 19th century [1]:

This tree is the king of the spruces, as the Sugar Pine is king of pines. It is by far the most majestic spruce I ever beheld in any forest, and one of the largest and longest lived of the giants that fluorish throughout the main pine belt, often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six and seven. Where the growth is not too close, the strong, spreading branches come more than halfway down the trunk, and these are hung with innumerable slender, swaying sprays, that are handsomely feathered with the short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. This vigorous spruce is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds and the snow as well as the mellow summer light, and maintaining its youthful freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand storms.

John Muir, 1894.

The Douglas spruce was discovered—from a British-European viewpoint—by Archibald Menzies, a surgeon-naturalist from Scotland, who had joined George Vancouver on his voyage along the Pacific North West coast in 1792 [2,3]. Botanist David Douglas, another Scot, who years later came to the lands of the Columbia River, succeeded in sending home cones and seeds. Douglas called the tree by the scientific name Pinus taxifolia, which was later named Pseudotsuga douglassii in his honor by John Muir. Now, this species of the pine family is recognized scientifically as Pseudotsuga menziesii and by the common name Douglas fir— although Douglas pine would fit better. Whatever name, no adventuring Scotsman has been left behind.

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, natural history, nomenclature, western North America.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 119 to 120  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] Ann Lindsay Mitchell and Syd House: David Douglas, Explorer and Botanist.Aurum Press Ltd, London, Great Britain, 1999; pp. 51-52.
[3] John Muir and the Douglas fir of Washington [www.skagitriverjournal.com/Logging/Nat/Forest/Muir1-Fir.html].

A tree of many colors: ponderosa pine, found from Sierra Nevada foothills up to the timber line

The ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) was discovered—from a European viewpoint—by David Douglas in 1826 in Washington, near today's Spokane [1]. Ponderosa trees are naturally found in pure stands and mixed conifer forests in mountains between western Canada and Mexico, including California's Sierra Nevada. The distribution of Pinus ponderosa in the Sierra Nevada at gaining elevation has been described by mountaineer John Muir [2]:

The Silver, or Yellow, Pine, as it is commonly called, ranks second among the pines of the Sierra as a lumber tree, and almost rivals the Sugar Pine in stature and nobleness of port. Because of its superior powers of enduring variations of climate and soil, it has a more extensive range than any other conifer growing on the Sierra. On the western slope it is first met at an elevation of about 2000 feet, and extends nearly to the upper limit of the timber line. Thence, crossing the range by the lowest passes, it descends to the eastern base, and pushes out for a considerable distance into the hot volcanic plains, growing bravely upon well-watered moraines, gravelly lake basins, arctic ridges, and torrid lava-beds; planting itself upon the lips of craters, flourishing vigorously even there, and tossing ripe cones among the ashes and cinders of Nature's hearths.

John Muir, 1894.

The ponderosa pine rivals the sugar pine; not in sweetness, but in stature and color range. In addition to the simple names yellow pine, silver pine and also big pine, Pinus ponderosa has the more specific names western yellow pine, western red pine, western longleaf pine, western pitch pine and Sierra brownbark pine—as well as less common names such bull pine and blackjack pine. It's a tree of many colors!

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, natural history, nomenclature, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex Lawson 1836 [www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_ponderosa.php].
[2] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 115 to 107  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

Better than maple sugar: sugar pine sugar (nanómba)

Sugar cone pine with sugar pine cones in Sugar Pine Point State Park at Lake Tahoe, California

John Muir (1838-1914) called the sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) the noblest pine, “surpassing all others not merely in size but also in kingly beauty and majesty” [1]. Seeds, needles and resin of sugar pine trees have been and still are used for medicinal and culinary purposes [2]: the turpentine obtained from the resin is antiseptic, diuretic, rubefacient and vermifuge. Nuts can be pulverized into nut butter. Muir mentioned the laxative properties of sugar pine products and compared the resin with the sap obtained from maple trees [1]:

The sugar, from which the common name [of the tree] is derived, is to my taste the best of sweets— better than maple sugar.  It excludes from the heart-wood, where wounds have been made, either by forest fires, or the ax, in the shape of irregular, crisp, candy-like kernels, which are crowded together in masses of considerable size, like clusters of resin-beads. When fresh, it is perfectly white and delicious, but, because most of the wounds on which it is found have been made by fire, the exuding sap is stained on the charred surface, and the hardened sugar becomes brown.

John Muir, 1894.

According to Muir, Native Americans were fond of the sugar pine sugar. The Washoe people of eastern California, Nevada and the Great Basin had their own word for it: nanómba [3]. Sweet!

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, resin, tree syrup, natural history, linguistics, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 108 to 115  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] Medicinal herbs: Sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana [www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/p/pinus-lambertiana=sugar-pine.php].
[3] The Washoe Project: nanómba [washo.uchicago.edu/dictionary/results.php?AttestationID=885&SearchBy=PhonemicIndex&SearchKey=n].

A queer little pine-tree covered all over with burs: Pinus tuberculata

John Muir (1838-1914) once, while exploring the lower portion of the Merced Canyon in the Sierra Nevada, met a miner, who spoke of a tree he called the “Hickory Pine” (“because of the whiteness and toughness of the wood”) [1]. Now known as the knobcone pine with several scientific synonyms (Pinus tuberculata, Pinus attentuata, Pinus californica), this species was referred to by mountaineers as “that queer little pine-tree covered all over with burs.” Indeed, its cones typically cluster in whorls around the stem and tree branches. John Muir beautifully sketched Pinus tuberculata, distinguishing between a tall, slender “grove form” and a cone-shaped “isolated form.” He wrote [1]:

This curious little pine is found at an elevation of from 1500 to 3000 feet, growing in close, willowy groves. It is exceedingly slender and graceful in habit, although trees that chance to stand alone outside the groves sweep forth long, curved branches, producing a striking contrast to the ordinary grove form. 

John Muir, 1894.

Muir compared the foliage with that of the nut pine with its airy appearance and grayish-green needle color. The knobcone pine is closely restricted to special localities in California and Oregon, while the nut pine is found more widespread within these states.

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, taxonomy, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 105 to 107  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

John Muir summarizing the distribution of the nut pine (Pinus sabiniana), endemic to California and Oregon

The nut pine (Pinus sabiniana) is also known as gray pine, ghost pine, digger pine and California foothill pine. The latter name hints at its range of distribution, which includes the foothills of the Californian Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, where Pinus sabiniana is a significant species of the oak-pine vegetation. Mountaineer John Muir (1838-1914) described its occurrence by approaching the Sierra Nevada from out of the Central Valley [1]:

The Nut Pine, the first conifer met in ascending the range [Sierra Nevada] from the west, grows only on the torrid foot-hills, seeming to delight in the most ardent sun-heat, like a palm; springing up here and there singly, or in scattered groups of five or six, among scrubby White Oaks and thickets of ceanothus and manzanita; its extreme upper limit being about 4000 feet above the sea, its lower about from 500 to 800 feet.

John Muir, 1894.

The seed cones of Pinus sabiniana contain nutritious pine nuts making this needle tree “a favorite with Indians, bears, and squirrels,” as Muir noted. Beyond California, nut pine trees also grow in oak woodlands and foothill forests of Oregon, where botanist David Douglas claimed to have collected specimens while looking for sugar pines [2,3].

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, pine-oak woodlands, nut pine habitat, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 103 to 105  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] Frank Callahan: Discovering Gray Pine (Pinus sabiniana) in Oregon [www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis16/callahan.pdf]; notice that this interesting and detailed article begins with a quote from John Muir's nut pine description.
[3] USDA PLANTS Profile: Pinus sabiniana Douglas ex Douglas, California foothill pine [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PISA2].

California's waving sea of evergreens

The forests of the Sierra Nevada are characterized by a park-like openness in which trees stand apart in groves or irregular groups, separated by meadows, brooks, streams and rock formations. Mountaineer John Muir (1838-1914) was fascinated by the wilderness of giant pines, firs and Sequoias, whose exploration he recounts in his book The Mountains of California. He dedicates one chapter with the title The Forests to the most common tree species, which distinguish the Sierra forest from conifer landscapes of other continents and confinements. Muir begins this chapter with a summarizing viewpoint [1]:

The coniferous forests of the Sierra are the grandest and most beautiful in the world, and grow in a delightful climate on the most interesting and accessible of mountain-ranges, yet strange to say they are not well known.

John Muir, 1894.

Keywords: woods, mountain forest, natural history, Sierra Nevada, California.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 98 and 99 in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.