Description
The Jeffrey Pine is a large coniferous evergreen tree, reaching 25 to 40 m (82 to 130 ft) tall, rarely up to 53 m (174 ft) tall, though smaller when growing at or near tree line. The leaves are needle-like, in bundles of three, stout, glaucous gray-green, 12 to 23 cm (4.7 to 9.1 in) long. The cones are 12 to 24 cm (4.7 to 9.4 in) long, dark purple when immature, ripening pale brown, with thinly woody scales bearing a short, sharp inward-pointing barb. The seeds are 10 to 12 mm (0.39 to 0.47 in) long, with a large (15 to 25 mm (0.59 to 0.98 in)) wing.
The Jeffrey Pine may be distinguished from the closely related Ponderosa Pine by the needles (image at left), which are glaucous, less bright green than those of Ponderosa Pine, and by the stouter, heavier cones with larger seeds and inward-pointing barbs (see image lower left). Jeffrey Pine is also very distinct from Ponderosa Pine in its resin scent, variously described as reminiscent of vanilla, lemon, pineapple, violets, apple; and, quite commonly, butterscotch; compared to the turpentine or odorless scent of Ponderosa Pine. This may be tested by breaking a small shoot or some needles, or by sampling the scent of the resin in between the plates of the bark. This difference in scent is related to the very unusual composition of the resin, with the volatile component made up almost entirely of pure n-heptane. Jeffrey Pine can be distinguished from Ponderosa Pine by the smaller scales of bark as compared to the larger plates of more reddish-colored Ponderosa bark.
Read more about this topic: Jeffrey Pine
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)