Pinus sabiniana

Pinus sabiniana
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Pinus
Subgenus:	Pinus
Species:	P. sabiniana[1]
Binomial name
Pinus sabiniana Douglas ex D.Don

Pinus sabiniana (sometimes spelled P. sabineana), with the common names gray pine, California foothill pine, and the more historically and internationally used digger pine, is a pine endemic to California in the United States.^[3][4][5][6] It is also known as foothill pine, ghost pine,^[7][8] bull pine, and nut pine.^[7]

Description

The Pinus sabiniana tree typically grows to 36–45 feet (11–14 m), but can reach 105 feet (32 m) feet in height. The needles of the pine are in fascicles (bundles) of three, distinctively pale gray-green, sparse and drooping, and grow to 20–30 centimetres (7.9–12 in) in length. The seed cones are large and heavy, 12–35 centimetres (4.7–14 in) in length and almost as wide as they are long. The male cones grow at the base of shoots on the lower branches.^[4][7][9]

Distribution and habitat

Pinus sabiniana grows at elevations between sea level and 4,000 feet (1,200 m), and is found throughout the state except for the most southerly counties and the eastern counties south of Lake Tahoe. It grows in rocky soil under dry conditions. It commonly occurs in association with Quercus douglasii,^[10] and "Oak/Foothill Pine vegetation" (also known as "Oak/Gray Pine vegetation") is used as a description of a type of habitat characteristic within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion in California, providing a sparse overstory above a canopy of the oak woodland. It is found throughout the: Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges foothills that ring the Central, San Joaquin and interior valleys; the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges; and Mojave Desert sky islands.^[4][9]

Ecology

Pinus sabiniana needles are the only known food of the caterpillars of the Gelechiid moth Chionodes sabinianus.

Taxonomy

Common name

The name Digger Pine supposedly came from the observation that the Paiute foraged for its seeds by digging around the base of the tree, although it is more likely that the term was first applied to the people; "Digger Indians" was in common use in California literature from the 1800s. The historically more common name Digger Pine is still in widespread use. The Jepson Manual advises avoiding the use of this name as the term "digger" is pejorative in origin.^{[11] [12]} It is also sometimes thought of as a pinyon pine, though it does not belong to that group.

Botanic name

Cone of Pinus sabiniana

The scientific botanical name with the standard spelling sabiniana commemorates Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society of London. In botanical nomenclature it is no longer customary to Latinize species names (such as Sabine to sabinius and sabiniana) before forming Neo-Latin terms, so an orthographical correction was proposed from sabiniana to sabineana by some botanists. However the new spelling proposal has not been accepted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Plant Data Center^[3] or the University of California's "The Jepson Manual".^[13] Nor has it been adopted into general use, with the spelling sabiniana used in the pine's endemic range by the University of California and state agencies,^[7] and in its home country's U.S. federal agencies.^[3] The USDA's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) database notes that the spelling sabiniana agrees with a provision in the Vienna Code of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the governing body of botanical nomenclature. In that Code, Recommendation 60.2C states that personal names that are already in Latin or Greek, or those that have a well-established latinized form can remain latinized in species epithets, otherwise species epithets have to be orthographically corrected to the proper form.^[14] The GRIN database notes that Sabine's last name is not correctable and therefore Pinus sabiniana is the proper name for the species.^[1]

See also

• California montane chaparral and woodlands
• California interior chaparral and woodlands

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Pinus sabiniana Douglas". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) online database. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?28540. Retrieved 1 October 2010. 
2. ^ Conifer Specialist Group, 1998
3. ^ ^{a b c} http://plants.usda.gov/java/reference?symbol=PISA2 accessed 9/29/2010
4. ^ ^{a b c} http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?195,210,232 . accessed 9/19/2010
5. ^ James E. Cole. 1939
6. ^ Ludwig Beissner. 1909
7. ^ ^{a b c d} http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=6524 . accessed 9/19/2010
8. ^ Moore, Gerry; Kershner, Bruce; Craig Tufts; Daniel Mathews; Gil Nelson; Spellenberg, Richard; Thieret, John W.; Terry Purinton; Block, Andrew (2008). National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America. New York: Sterling. p. 87. ISBN 1-4027-3875-7. 
9. ^ ^{a b} http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=profile&symbol=PISA2&display=31 . accessed 9/19/2010
10. ^ C. Michael Hogan, 2008
11. ^ Hickman, J.C. (Ed.) "The Jepson Manual, Higher Plants of California". University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993 p.120.
12. ^ Jepon Manual Online [1], "PINACEAE", accessed January 6, 2011.
13. ^ http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?195,210,232
14. ^ International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. 2006. Recommendation 60C.2. Accessed online: 1 October 2010.

References

• Conifer Specialist Group (1998). Pinus sabineana. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• James E. Cole. 1939. The Cone-bearing Trees of Yosemite: Digger Pine
• A. Farjon (2005). Pines: Drawings and descriptions of the genus Pinus. Brill. ISBN 90-04-13916-8
• C. Michael Hogan (2008) Blue Oak: Quercus douglasii, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg
• Ludwig Beissner. 1909. Handbuch der Nadelholzkunde: Systematik, Beschreibung, Verwendung und Kultur der Ginkgoaceen, Freiland- Coniferen und Gnetaceen. Für Gärtner, Forstleute und Botaniker, Published by P. Parey, 742 pages

External links

• UC Jepson Manual treatment - Pinus sabiniana
• USDA PLANTS Treatment: Pinus sabiniana
• Pinus sabiniana - Calflora Photos archive
• Calflora Database - Pinus sabiniana data and range map
• UC Jepson: Accepted names for taxon native to CA database - Pinus sabiniana
• USDA: Data Source and References for Pinus sabiniana (California foothill pine)