Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana''), also known as grey pine or scrub pine, is a

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

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. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

Distribution and habitat

Its native range in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

is east of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

from the

Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, and the north-central and northeast of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

and northwest

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Taxonomy

In the far west of its range, ''Pinus banksiana'' hybridizes readily with the closely related

lodgepole pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpin ...

(''Pinus contorta''). The species epithet ''banksiana'' is after the English botanist Sir

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

Description

''Pinus banksiana'' ranges from in height. Some jack pines are shrub-sized, due to poor growing conditions. They do not usually grow perfectly straight, resulting in an irregular shape similar to

pitch pine ''Pinus rigida'', the pitch pine, is a small-to-medium-sized pine. It is native to eastern North America, primarily from central Maine south to Georgia and as far west as Kentucky. It is found in environments which other species would find unsuit ...

(''Pinus rigida''). This pine often forms pure stands on sandy or rocky soil. Many populations are adapted to stand-replacing fires, with the cones remaining closed for many years, until a forest fire kills the mature trees and opens the cones, reseeding the burnt ground. Other populations have not been shaped by regular stand-replacing fires and have reduced

serotiny Serotiny in botany simply means 'following' or 'later'. In the case of serotinous flowers, it means flowers which grow following the growth of leaves, or even more simply, flowering later in the season than is customary with allied species. Havi ...

. A population on the Maine coast is apparently not reliant on fire for reproduction, and some stands have developed several age classes. Populations with lower serotiny are often found on soils that are in some way limiting to faster-growing competition, such as soils shallow to bedrock, shallow to water table, or very young soils. Its leaves are needle-shaped, evergreen, in fascicles of two, needle-like, straight or slightly twisted, stiff, sharp-pointed, light yellowish-green, spread apart; edges toothed and long. The bundle-sheath is persistent. The buds are blunt pointed, up to 15 mm long, reddish-brown, and resinous. On vigorous shoots, there is more than one cyclic component. The bark is thin, reddish-brown to gray in color in juvenile stages. As the tree matures it becomes dark brown and flaky. The wood is moderately hard and heavy, weak, light brown colour. The seed cones vary in shape, being rectangular to oval, cone shaped, straight or curved inward. The

cones In geometry, a cone is a three-dimensional figure that tapers smoothly from a flat base (typically a circle) to a point not contained in the base, called the ''apex'' or '' vertex''. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, ...

are long, the scales with a small, fragile prickle that usually wears off before maturity, leaving the cones smooth. Unusually for a pine, the cones normally point forward along the branch, sometimes curling around it. That is an easy way to tell it apart from the similar lodgepole pine in more western areas of North America. The cones on many mature trees are serotinous. They open when exposed to intense heat, greater than or equal to . The typical case is in a fire, however cones on the lower branches can open when temperatures reach due to the heat being reflected off the ground.

Ecology

Kirtland's warbler Kirtland's warbler (''Setophaga kirtlandii''), also known in Michigan by the common name jack pine bird, or the jack pine warbler, is a small songbird of the New World warbler family (biology), family (Parulidae). Nearly Extinction, extinct just ...

(''Setophaga kirtlandii''), a formerly

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

, depends on pure stands of young jack pine in a very limited area in the north of the

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and Upper Peninsulas of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

for breeding. Most known nesting areas are limited to Crawford, Oscoda, and Ogemaw counties. Mature jack pine forests are usually open and

blueberries Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' with the genus ''Vaccinium''. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) ...

are often abundant in the

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

. Young jack pines are an alternate host for sweet fern blister rust (''Cronartium comptoniae''). Infected sweet ferns (''Comptonia peregrina'') release powdery orange spores in the summer and nearby trees become infected in the fall. Diseased trees show vertical orange cankers on the trunk and galls on the lower branches. The disease does not tend to affect older trees.Blouin, Glen. ''An Eclectic Guide to Trees: east of the rockies''. 2001. Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario. pp 152-159. Jack pines are also susceptible to scleroderris canker (''Gremmeniella abietina''). This disease manifests by yellowing at the base of the needles. Prolonged exposure may lead to eventual death of the tree. Insects that attack jack pine stands include the white pine weevil (''Pissodes strobi''), jack pine sawfly, and jack pine budworm (''Choristoneura pinus''). Fossil evidence shows the jack pine survived the glacial period in the Appalachian and

Ozark Mountains The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...

.Trees of Canada; Author John Laird Farrar

Commercial uses

Like other species of pine, ''Pinus banksiana'' has use as timber, although its wood tends to be knotty and not highly resistant to decay. Products include

pulpwood Pulpwood can be defined as timber that is ground and processed into a fibrous pulp. It is a versatile natural resource commonly used for Papermaking, paper-making but also made into low-grade wood and used for chips, energy, pellets, and engineered ...

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

, decking, and

utility pole A utility pole, commonly referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, is a column or post used to support overhead power lines and various other public util ...

Gallery

File:Pinus banksiana forest.jpg, ''P. banksiana'' forest with ''

Vaccinium ''Vaccinium'' is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (wh ...

'' groundcover in Neil's Harbour,

. File:Jackpine.jpg, Foliage File:Pinus banksiana closed cones.jpg, Closed, mature cones File:Cones2.jpg, Pollen cones File:Pinus banksiana bark.jpg, Bark File:The Jack Pine, by Tom Thomson.jpg, ''

The Jack Pine ''The Jack Pine'' is a well-known oil painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. A representation of the most broadly distributed pine species in Canada, it is considered an iconic image of the country's landscape,Silcox, p. 193 and is one of t ...

'' (1917) by

Tom Thomson Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His wo ...

, painted in

Algonquin Park Algonquin Provincial Park is an Ontario provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada. Addit ...

, Ontario. File:Jack Pine 'Schoodic'.jpg, Creeping cultivar of Jack Pine called 'Schoodic'.

References

External links

{{Authority control Pinus Pinus taxa by common names Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of Alberta Flora of Illinois Flora of Indiana Flora of Maine Flora of Manitoba Flora of Massachusetts Flora of Michigan Flora of Minnesota Flora of New Hampshire Flora of New York (state) Flora of North Dakota Flora of the Northwest Territories Flora of Nunavut Flora of Saskatchewan Flora of Vermont Flora of Wisconsin Trees of Northern America Taxa named by Aylmer Bourke Lambert