Jack Pine

From BWCAWiki

The Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) is a North American pine with its native range in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains from Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, and the northeast of the United States from Minnesota to Maine, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana. In the far west of its range, it hybridises readily with the closely related Lodgepole Pine (P. contorta).

It is not a large tree, ranging from 9-22 m in height. Some Jack Pines are shrub-sized. This pine often forms pure stands on sandy or rocky soil. It is fire-adapted to stand-replacing fires, with the cones remaining closed for many years, until a natural forest fire kills the mature trees and open the cones. These then reseed the burnt ground.

The leaves are in fascicles of two, needle-like, twisted, slightly yellowish-green, and 2-4 cm long. The cones are 3-5 cm 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.