Pika,

Glad to hear from foresters. The U of Washington has a ppine provenance test at their research facility at Pack Forest. Seed sources from about 10 Nat Forests were planted in the the 1940s. Your observations about inter-species variablity are right on. The plots are located on the west side of the Cascades in a pretty wet location, but the differences among progeny are surprising.

The discussion you elude to regarding ppine, and Arizona pine has always made me uncomfortable. Ppines have 3 and sometimes 2 needles per fascile, but Az pines have 5. That is one of the main ways pines are differentiated. To me this discussion is something that bored botanists and taxonomists pontificate about as an academic exercise. I am a lumper if it is not obvious.

One minor point to add to the discussion. Jeffrey is capitalized because it is a proper name. Ponderosa is not capitalized. Genus names are always capitalized ie Pinus. Species names are not like monticola. Latin names should be underlined or typed in italics.


Edited by ppine (11/03/11 12:53 PM)