The tutor shares a recent discovery from his neighborhood.

About a mile away, a school has a secluded parking lot offset from its main one. On walks, I’ve taken the kids around that school, to that secluded corner, many times over the years. (Of course, we always go when it’s deserted.) My older one and I arrived there yesterday evening at twilight.

By accident or plan, there is an assortment of trees around that corner lot that you don’t often see together. Among them, surprisingly, is a western white pine.

Western white pine was once common in these forests, but was mainly destroyed by white pine blister rust, which arrived from the east in 1910. While a few resistant western white pines still thrive, you can walk hours in the forest without seeing one.

The length of the cones on the ground – around 8″ or 20 cm – confirms the ID. I thought the needles, at around 6cm, were short for a white pine, but the guide confirms that length to match with the western white pine.

I have high hopes of seeing more western white pine. In future posts I’ll tell about some of the other trees around that small corner lot.

Source:

Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia. Vancouver: BC    Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.