In spite of my laziness

Still walking around Buttle Lake. These pines are growing out in the sunshine, on the sandy shore of the lake.

Western White Pine,  Pinus monticola, bearing new pollen cones.

A second tree, bearing new shoots, pink tips, and a few seed cones. Plus all those pollen cones.

Same tree, reaching for the sky.

I find pine trees confusing. It's my fault; I need to spend more time checking numbers and shapes of needles. And measuring things onsite. How long are the needles, the cones, the pollen cones? The Western White Pine has 5 needles in a bunch; I should have checked. Next time, I will.

But. Searching on iNaturalist, I found this same tree, with a photo of the site. Go look. This is on the sandy slope just inland of that pink grass.

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Sigo viendo las fotos de las plantas de Buttle Lake. Estos pinos se encuentran a la orilla del lago, creciendo en pleno sol.

1. Pino blanco, Pinus monticola. Estos son los conos (o piñas) machos, los que producen el polen.
2. Otro árbol, este llevando conos de semilla (hembras), los conos machos, y ramas nuevas algunas con puntas rojas.
3. El mismo pino, creciendo.

Tengo alguna dificultad en identificar los varios pinos. Culpa mia; necesito tomar el tiempo de examinar y contar las hojas. Y debo medir todo donde y cuando lo encuentro. ¿Cuánto miden las hojas, los conos machos y hembras?  Este pino blanco lleva sus hojas en grupos de cinco; debería haberlos contado. Para la próxima, lo haré.

Pero la suerte me ayudó esta vez. En iNaturalist, encontré este mismo árbol, acompañado con una foto del sitio donde crece. Aquí está, en el declive cerca de donde vi ese pasto rojo.

Candles in the bog

On the spur of the moment, on finding the parking lot at the mall crowded with cars lined up waiting for spots, we changed our minds and went down to Burns Bog instead. We weren't prepared, and the only camera we had was the tiny, pocket-sized Sony. And it was so long since I'd used it that I forgot to check its settings, so the flash was set to "Always". In the blazing sun, this doesn't work so well.

No matter; it was an interesting afternoon; I'll have more to say about it later on. For now, this:

We came across an unusual pine tree in an area that had been mostly paved over long, long ago.

Treetop, festooned with "candles".

This may be a variation of the shore pine, Pinus contorta. The needles come in pairs (look closely at the base of the cone below), and are about 3 inches long, slightly curved or twisted. Lodgepole pine needles also come in pairs, but the tree is usually taller and straighter, and not so likely to be found here on the coast.

The trunk and branches are crooked, the bark scaly, brown or grey depending on the light. So far, so good.

Where it seems not to match up, is in the large cones. The erect cones at the tips of the branches are the short-lived male cones. They are about as long as the needles, 3 inches tall or more. Each one, at the tip, wears a clump of shorter needles.

As we moved about the tree, we could see a cloud of pollen being released. I shook a cone on purpose; yellow pollen sprayed everywhere. The cone was sticky and mildly scented.

Male cone, with topknot. Sorry about the glare.

Each pollen grain shields a sperm cell. The grains float on the wind to reach a female cone and fertilize the ovules, deep between the scales. The male cone then disintegrates, while the female matures and becomes woody. Each scale will have a pair of seeds at the base, which, if this is a shore pine, will be released once it matures. (The cones of the Lodgepole pine stay closed for years until a forest fire splits them open.)

Cropped from top photo. Some branches have clusters of "candles". At the base, on two of these branches, are a couple or three fat female cones.

Tangled, rubbery branches, brown, scaly bark.

My guide says, about the shore pine,

"On some peat-bogs*, shore pine forms stunted forests where 100-year-old trees my be less than 5 cm. in diameter."

*Such as Burns Bog, where we found this one.