Pinus strobus, Eastern White Pine

I attended the New York Botanical Garden's (NYBG) Orchid Show recently.  Since it was (unlike many previous years) a gloriously beautiful day, our little group spent hours wandering the grounds, getting off and on the tram.  The tree peonies were in lush, lascivious bloom, and we marveled at the colors and forms, not to mention the names.  Try "Coiled Dragon in the Mist Grasping the Purple Pearl".  We wondered who dreamed that one up!  But what does all this have to do with a native habitat restoration?  I'll tell you:  The NYBG is hard at work doing what we're doing, creating a native plant area in the middle of the garden.  It's all walled off right now, but we could see major equipment behind the walls.  It will be open in 2013, and I'm very anxious to see the result of their work.
A major feature of the NYBG is their conifer area, many of which are rare.  Not at all rare, our guest on this post is the native conifer Pinus strobus, the Eastern White Pine, one of the most common evergreens used as a Christmas tree depending on heritage and customs and said to be a source of inspiration for the United States Constitution.

Centuries ago, some say millenia, tribes that inhabited what is now much of eastern North America fought cruel bloody wars. It was a dark and mournful time.  According to the  legend, the Creator sent a spiritual teacher, the Peacemaker, who canoed from the western shore of Lake Ontario  to lead the tribes in fulfilling the Creator's wish that the tribes work toward peace and unity and to inspire the warring tribes to form a league, which we know as the Iroquois Confederacy, the Haudenosaunee, whose primary national symbol is the Great White Pine, serving throughout the Great Law as a metaphor for the Confederacy.  Historians believe the Confederacy was established in the 13th or 14th century.  Hiawatha was converted by and became a follower of the Peacemaker.

The Great Law of Peace laid out a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" with three branches. The Onondaga, the Firekeepers, are the heart of the Confederacy. The legislative branch is in two parts: Mohawk and Seneca are Elder Brothers who form the upper house, while Oneida and Cayuga are Younger Brothers.  The Iroquois Women's Councils settle disputes and judge legal violations.  The Peacemaker conferred this important responsibility on women because the first person to accept the message of peace and unity was a Seneca woman, Jigonsaseh, who became known as the Mother of Nations.



Iroquois pine needle basket

Evergreens often symbolize immortality and eternal life because they retain their leaves throughout the winter. To the Iroquois people, the white pine is a symbol of the Great Peace that united their separate nations into an enduring League. The Peace Tree is related to the Tree of Light, a central symbol in Iroquois cosmology. Similar mythological trees are found in European traditions, including the Norse World Tree and the medieval Christian Tree of Life. The World Tree symbolizes the unity of all life, and the struggle of order and growth against chaos and disintegration. The white pine is thus linked to one of the most universal spiritual symbols of the human species.

P. strobus cone, the state flower of Maine

Photo by Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service

The tallest native conifer in eastern North America, Pinus strobus is the state tree of Maine and Michigan. The tree's branching rings, added each year, and having only five-needles per cluster make it unique among the eastern pines--see photo below.

Pine needles; inset shows 5-needle clusters

 

 Other common names are northern white pine, soft pine, Weymouth pine (especially in England) and white pine; a related variety is found in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is found across southern Canada from Newfoundland, Anticosti Island, and Gaspé peninsula of Quebec; west to central and western Ontario and extreme southeastern Manitoba; south to southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa; east to northern Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; and south mostly in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina. It is also found in western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and Delaware.  While it covered most of the northeast, extensive logging has reduced virgin, that is, never been logged, stands to a few known locations, such as in the Sylvania Wilderness in the Ottowa National Forest of Michigan, shown in the photo below.  It is also naturalizing, that is, establishing itself by seed of imported ornamental specimens, in the mountains of Poland and the Czech Republic.

  Katherine Lake  Photo by Joseph O'Brien, USDA Forest Service

The tallest known specimen, the Boogerman pine, climbed and measured by tape drop from the tops of trees, was just shy of 190 feet; I say 'was' because it lost its top in a 1995 hurricane, and with that lost its status as champion eastern white pine.  The current champion, also climbed and measured by tape drop, is in Pennsylvania's Cook Forest State Park, topping the chart at 183.6 feet.  Please visit the  Eastern Native Tree Society at http://www.nativetreesociety.org/ for more information about champion trees as well as information about trees seen through art, poetry, music, mythology, science, medicine, wood crafts, and collecting research data for a variety of purposes.  The photo below shows a large eastern white pine being measured in a park in Belgium.



Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont, 2007

White pines  prefer well-drained soil and cool, humid climates, but also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests it towers over all other trees, including the large hardwoods. It provides food and shelter for many forest birds and small mammals.

In times past white pines with high quality wood were used for ship masts. These trees were marked by the British and reserved for the British navy, which built special barges that carried as many as 50 trunks.  The colonists did not approve and delighted in seeing how many of the king's trees they could get away with cutting down for themselves.

The needles of  P. strobus have five times as much vitamin C as lemons by weight and can be steeped into a fine tea.  The name 'Adirondack' is an Iroquois word meaning 'tree eater'; Native Americans would collect the soft inner bark, the cambium, dry it, and pound it into flour to make pine bark bread in lean times.  The young cones were also eaten, stewed with meat.  And pine nuts are popular for many recipes even today.

Baked Stuffed Figs with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts (Serves 4) 

  

12 ripe figs
150 g (5 1/4 oz.) soft goat cheese
Handful of chives, finely snipped
Few thyme sprigs, leaves stripped
45 mL (3 tbsp) toasted pine nuts
Good quality balsamic vinegar, to drizzle

Trim off the tip from each fig; cut a cross through the top, cutting about halfway down. Squeeze the base of each fig to open out the top quarters like a flower.

Stuff the figs with goat cheese; sprinkle with snipped chives, thyme leaves and pine nuts; and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Stand the figs on a large piece of foil. Bring up the sides and fold together to seal the package (can be prepped to this point in advance). You can either bake the figs in a hot oven, preheated to 200 C (400 F), or on a barbecue. They should take about 10 to 12 minutes. Unwrap package and serve immediately.

Salix discolor, American Willow, Harbinger of Spring

While our habitat trees were dozing the winter away in their dormant state, the blog also went dormant.  But now that spring has truly sprung, our trees are waking, as we are, to the pleasures of sunshine, balmy breezes, and nurturing rainfall.  Our trees look good in their deer-resistant cages--only a bit of nibble here and there where branches found a way outside cages.

Beloved by children who delight in touching its soft, furry catkins that emerge in early spring, this deciduous shrub or small tree is commonly called Pussy Willow.  It is native to forests and wetlands across Canada and in the northern United States from Maine to Idaho as far south as Maryland.  There are male and female trees.  The male catkins are showier; they are the ones sold in markets and the ones people trudge out in the snow to find, cut, and bring into the house as harbingers of spring. 

Trimming Pussy Willow to make the wreath below

Directions: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/design/projects/make-a-gorgeous-pussy-willow-wreath/

Like other willows, the Pussy Willow is easy to propagate.  Cut ends of wild or a neighbor's branches will root in moist soil in the summer if cuttings about a foot long and as thick as a pencil are taken from new growth on a male tree--the male is the one you want for its  showy catkins.  Or you can root them in water indoors and plant them out in summer.  Do not plant them over a septic field or near water or sewer lines because their roots are invasive.

According to the Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project of Prince Edward Island, willow buds are second only to the buds of poplars as preferred food of ruffed grouse. Beaver, muskrat, red squirrel, and snowshoe hare all include willow in their diet. The leaves are rich in Vitamin C and zinc. Pussy willows are an important nesting site for American goldfinch, while other songbirds use them to a lesser degree. The cover and protection thickets of willow provide are probably of equal importance to wildlife as its food value.

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) male in breeding plumage, by Wikipedia user Mdf

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, May 2007

Deer also like to eat the branches of pussy willows. All this attention from wildlife has its good side, especially for wildlife watching, but if you don't want your pussy willows damaged, you'll have to protect them.

The willows are a very large family with about 400 species, all of which have abundant, watery bark and sap that is heavily charged with salacin, which is converted into salicylic acid when ingested; it in turn is a precursor of aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid.  People throughout the ages have utilized the willow for healing, tools, and spirituality. Hippocrates wrote of its healing powers in the 5th century BC; it was known throughout the ancient world, and Native Americans regarded it as the cornerstone of medical treatment. The legends and histories about willows span a variety of cultures throughout the world.

The American Pussy Willow has relatives in Europe and Asia with similar characteristics.  The branches all produce catkins well before the leaves emerge, so wherever you find them, they will be used for decorative purposes.  The branches are a favorite of the Chinese for New Year decorations because the new growth represents prosperity; they are bought in the markets, then adorned with red and gold ornaments, which signify prosperity and happiness.  In Southeast Asia, pieces of red, pink, and yellow felt are used.  In Europe and America, the branches have been used instead of palm leaves on Palm Sunday because palms grow only in southern areas.  To this day, the custom endures among some immigrants to North America, including Russian Orthodox and Polish, Bavarian, and Austrian Roman Catholics; the branches are often preserved all year long in families' icon corners.  See http://resurrectionwillows.tripod.com/propagation.html for more information.

Pussy Willow decorated for Lunar New Year

Polish Legend of the Pussy Willow 

One day in early spring, a mother cat and her kittens where exploring the forest along the river near their home. A beautiful butterfly drifted past them and over the water. The kittens, being young and inexperienced, leaped into the air to try and catch the butterfly, but instead landed in the swiftly moving water.

The mother cat cried helplessly while her young kittens struggled against the current. The kittens were having a hard time, and she was afraid they would soon drown.

Along the banks grew a wise willow, with graceful branches that bent all the way to the water. The willow, seeing all that had happened, bent its branches further into the water to try to rescue the kittens. Each kitten grabbed with its sharp claws, and was pulled gently to the shore by the willow.

To this day, the willow is honored for its heroic deeds by the

tiny fur-like buds that sprout each season as the rivers start

to run in spring.