Identification: Grade 3 Show & Tell - Plant ID - Pine by the MacMillan Bldg

My granddaughter is bringing her giant pine cone to school for Show and Tell and needs to do some research. It came from behind my partner's lab in the MacMillan building at UBC. Is it a Coulter Pine? (Our 4 year old grandson now wants HIS OWN pine cone, so was happy to provide the scientific evidence! :)

 

Ponderosa?

 

Hi Margot,

Thanks for your suggestion, but these cones are massive, bigger than Ponderosa, I think. I was hoping Doug Justice would weigh in, but can't seem to send a message to him directly. I should have used a different subject line, "Plant ID - Pine by the MacMillan Bldg" but can't seem to edit it. I have checked a list of conifers at UBC, but can't find a Pinus coulteri, so I'm flummoxed.

 

The overall shape in combination with the large thick prickles do conform to that species.

pinus coulteri cones - Bing images

 

Yes, they're quite prickly to handle! Thanks, Ron!

 

I remember finding a quite large pine cone once in a place where no pine trees were growing. Since it was the only cone in sight, I figured it must have been brought there or discarded; who knows? This isn't a likely explanation for your huge cone but not beyond possibility.

 

I always thought that it was Pinus sabiniana (grey or foothills pine), because the cones are quite round (not so loaf-like) and the umbos (prickles) aren't particularly strongly recurved as some others, but I've been assured that that specimen is definitely a Coulter (big-cone) pine.

 

Thanks for weighing in on this, Doug. My sweetie (Mike Novak, Soil Physics) thought you'd know this tree. An online image comparing coulteri to sabiniana cones shows noticable differences. Several even larger cones are stowed away under our head-cracking deck. I'm not eager to go back there after my season's whacks digging out winter protection materials just last week.

 

I'm still not clear whether either P. coulteri or P. sabiniana are actually growing behind the MacMillan building at UBC.

Determining that would give you a definitive identification wouldn't it?

 

Margot, I'm not sure what your question is. I understood Douglas to say that he knows the tree in question and has discussed it with others: "I've been assured that that specimen is definitely a Coulter (big-cone) pine".

 

Key:

Pinus in Flora of North America @ efloras.org

 

Okay, maybe I'm being dense but 'that specimen' can just as easily reference a comparison of one species to the other. I now realize that Douglas is familiar with the pine trees behind the MacMillan building but that was not immediately obvious to me. Glad to know the IP question has been answered.

'Nuff said. I'm off to bed!

 

The part of the key I linked to where big cone and gray pines appear as a pair gives nice simple characters by which to tell them apart. Including differing features of the cones.

 

I read it last night, Ron. The mention of 'claws' is apt; they're reminiscent of grizzly claws! I appreciate you sharing resources - I'll always refer to them. : )