Our own three pines

If you are a fan of the author Louise Penny, you’ll know that she sets her wonderful mysteries in the fictitious Quebec town of Three Pines. Penny is a Canadian treasure and I always impatiently await hert latest books. I admit to being drawn to a town—even an unreal one—named after trees. The “three pines” are a trio of large trees that are a focal part of the town. That was once more common but today it is a rarer thing.

It is fun to think of “three pines” in relation to Prince Edward Island. While we have brought in many non-native pines—Scots Pine, Austrian Pine, even the stunted Mugo Pine—we have three native pines.

People sometimes have a difficulty time distinguishing one conifer—a tree that produces cones—from another. It is a simple matter, really, especially with the pines. The needles on pines all come in bundles. The way I learned how to identify White Pine was that “white” is a five-letter word, and that White Pine needles are in a bundle of five.

The needles of White Pine are soft and slender, with a blue cast. Once you know what to look for, these trees are easy to identify, especially if they are growing out of the woodland canopy. Most of our Bald Eagles build their nests in White Pine, as the soft wood of this tree often breaks off, leaving a perfect scaffold upon which to build a nest.

White Pine is one of our most versatile native trees, and has long been used in shipbuilding, furniture making, and housing construction. There was talk of White Pine in the Belfast area having a diameter of two metres, though those were cut long ago. Still, I regularly see lovely tall, straight White Pine that are one metre in diameter and over 20 metres tall.

White Pine is a relatively fast grower on the proper site. It prefers dry areas that are protected from the worst of the winter winds—usually those from the northeast. White Pine planted out in open areas often run into three problems. The winter winds can suck the moisture out of the needles, leaving them quite brown. The species grows fast in the open but can be a target for the European shoot moth, which destroys the form of the tree by creating multiple leaders and dramatically reducing the value of the wood. It is always better to grow this species with a little bit of shade, making them excellent choices for enrichment plantings in slightly open woodlands. And finally, the fungus White Pine Blister Rust can target these trees and actually kill them.

Our other two native pines have needles in bundles of two. When I am teaching tree identification, my memory trick is “Jack’s too short, Red’s too long.” It is an easy way to remember that Jack Pine—a rare tree in our Acadian/Wabanaki forest—has two quite short, slightly curved needles. Red Pine has two quite long needles. If you remember that simple phrase, you’ll never confuse these species.  

These two species also grow on dry soil but both are quite rare outside of plantations. There is not a lot of natural regeneration of either species. That doesn’t mean we should be pounding in more of these in conifer plantations.  Instead, when we find them growing in the wild, we should be careful to preserve them.

Knowing what is living around you can make the outdoors more interesting and enjoyable—and that is something we should all strive towards.