Pinus sabiniana

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

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 (7.9–11.8 in) in length. The seed cones are large and heavy, 12–35 centimetres (4.7–13.8 in) in length and almost as wide as they are long. The male cones grow at the base of shoots on the lower branches.

Distribution and habitat

Pinus sabiniana grows at elevations between sea level and 4,000 feet (1,200 m), and is found in areas receiving 15 to 25" (750-1250 mm)of annual rainfall. It is adapted to long hot dry summers and is common in the northern and interior portions of the California Floristic Province. It prefers rocky, well drained soil, but also grows in serpentine soil and heavy poorly drained clay soils. It commonly occurs in association with Quercus douglasii, 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.