#limber pine

A Limber Pine keeps watch over the river, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming

Life Finds A Way

Limber pines (Pinus flexillis) really take the challenge of “I can grow here” very seriously.

Limber pines grow in the mountains of western North America (it’s sometimes called the Rocky Mountain pine). Like it’s name suggests, the boughs and branches of the limber pine are quite pliant and flexible. Limber pines are a high elevation pine and usually grow near or at the tree line. Depending where they grow, they can reach heights of anywhere from 15-35 ft or 6-10 m tall (then again growing at elevations that not a lot of other trees reach can kind of compensate for that).

The needles are dark green/blueish in color and grow in fascicles of five and have a deciduous sheath (fascicle just a word that means “groups of leaves“ and it is often used to discern pine species based on how many pine needles grow in one fascicle).

Pine Cones Are Like Hangars for Pine Tree Seeds

Over the past year I’ve written about the making of pine tar and the drinking of pine needle tea. But why stop there? Pines are a fascinating group of plants, worthy of myriad more posts, and so my exploration into the genus continues with pine cones and the seeds they bear.

Pines are conifers and, more broadly, gymnosperms. They are distinct from angiosperms (i.e.flowering plants), with the most…

Photos of the tree species I’m studying for my research job this summer! Meet the Limber Pine. They like wide open south-facing slopes of mountains and hills, and sandy or poor soil. The first guy is around 700 years old, and the little baby seedling there is 50 years old.

Follow the Path

Morning light through Limber Pine

A new crop of Limber Pine cones rides out a snowstorm