Pinus rigida Massachusetts (Wareham)
Item Information
- Title:
- Pinus rigida Massachusetts (Wareham)
- Title (alt.):
-
Tree habit with house
- Description:
-
Pinus rigida Massachusetts (Wareham) Cape Cod.
- Photographer:
- Wilson, Ernest Henry, 1876-1930
- Collector:
- Wilson, Ernest Henry, 1876-1930
- Date:
-
October 28, 1923
- Format:
-
Photographs
- Genre:
-
Glass negatives
- Location:
- Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library
- Collection (local):
-
Photographs of Ernest Henry Wilson
- Series:
- New England Trees
- Subjects:
-
Pines
Pitch pine
- Places:
-
Massachusetts > Plymouth (county) > Wareham
- Extent:
- 1 negative : glass ; 20.5 x 15.5 cm.
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/1r66j323p
- Terms of Use:
-
(c) President and Fellows of Harvard College. Arnold Arboretum Archives. Permission to publish archival materials and / or images in a publication, performance, or broadcast must first contact the library for permission < hortlib@arnarb.harvard.edu >. Our policies and forms for use of the library and archival materials can be accessed at http://arboretum.harvard.edu/library/services/
All rights reserved.
- Notes (historical):
-
(M-7) is a Pinus rigida from Wareham, Massachusetts (Cape Cod), situated near a house. Cape Cod and Long Island, where these trees still flourish, were once pitch pine forests (Virginia Barlow, “Pitch Pine,” Northern Woodlands, March 1, 2010 http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/pitch-pine). This photograph was taken on October 28, 1923. It has leaves that grow in threes, the cones are sharp and rigid, and the bark is rough and sometimes quite black, which is why it is also called “black pine” (George Emerson, Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts [Boston: Little Brown &Co, 1887], pp. 79-89). The Pinus rigida is also called a “pitch pine” because it was an important source of pitch, tar, rosin, and turpentine in Colonial periods (Barlow 2010). It is known for being rugged, asymmetrical, and irregular in shape, and for being a phoenix-like tree that can withstand human abuses and the harsh elements of wind, salt water, and even fire. It can even resurrect itself after being chopped down. E.H. Wilson and George Emerson both felt that it was an unattractive tree because it was asymmetrical, and Wilson even called it an “unlovely tree” with “little garden value.” (Wilson, Aristocrats of the Garden, pp. 174; Emerson, 79). Barlow says that its “survival mechanisms take a toll on appearance, and that many of these trees have “irregular profiles,” which “include heavy, lopsided lower branches, and many years’ worth of aged cones blacken the crown” (Barlow 2010). Emerson and Wilson both noted that the tree could withstand the elements of wind and rain when “lashed by the sea,” (Wilson 174) and Emerson said that for this reason it thrives on Cape Cod (86). In her study about the nature of Cape Cod, Beth Schwarzman mentions that pitch pines are flammable, but especially well-adapted to surviving and regrowing after fire, and that their serotinous cones actually don’t open until they are heated by fire (Beth Schwarzman, The Nature of Cape Cod [Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2002], p. 31.) Wilson mentions “green sprouts that grow on its trunk,” (174) by which he means that the stump of this tree sprouts when it is cut down. The sprouts do not grow to be very tall, but they flourish. This trait is evidently unique, and this is the only variety of pine tree that has these resurrective properties (Emerson 88).
- Accession #:
-
13270
- Identifier:
-
AAW-007
M-7
