Pinus banksiana

Jack pine is a fast-growing evergreen tree reaching 12 m tall by 5 m wide. It remains in leaf year-round, flowering in May with seeds ripening January to February. The tree is monoecious and wind-pollinated but not self-fertile. It thrives in light sandy and medium loamy soils, tolerating nutritionally poor conditions and mildly acid to neutral pH. The tree requires full sun and adapts to dry or moist soil and drought. It tolerates strong winds but not maritime exposure. Hardy to UK zone 2.

Description

A tree. It grows to 25 m tall. The trunk is 0.6 m across. The trunk tapers and the crown is cone shaped. The bark is orange or red-brown. It is scaly. The crown can be flat topped or irregularly rounded. The small branches are orange red. There are 2 needles per bundle. They are yellow green and twisted. They are 2-5 cm long by 1-1.5 mm wide. The edges are finely toothed. The seed cones curve upwards. They are pale brown or greenish yellow. They are oval when open. They are unequal in shape. They are 3-5.5 cm long. They then shed seeds but sometimes only with age or fire. The seeds are brown or nearly black and compressed. They are 4-5 mm across.

Edible Uses

The seeds can be eaten raw or cooked. They are very small — only 2–3mm long — and rich in oil with a slightly resinous flavour, making them fiddly to process in quantity. Young cones can be cooked and eaten. The inner bark is also edible raw or cooked, and can be dried and ground into a powder for use as a thickener in soups or mixed with cereal flours when making bread. A refreshing drink can be made from the leaves. A vanillin flavouring is obtained as a by-product of resins released from the pulpwood.

Traditional Uses

The inner bark is sweet and succulent when the sap is running in spring. It is eaten fresh or dried. The seeds are eaten A tea if made from the needles. It needs sweetening with sugar, honey or maple syrup.

Medicinal Uses

Turpentine from pine resin is antiseptic, diuretic, rubefacient, and vermifuge. Taken internally it is a valuable treatment for kidney and bladder complaints, and is used both internally and as a rub and steam bath for rheumatic conditions. It benefits the respiratory system and is useful for diseases of the mucous membranes and complaints such as coughs, colds, influenza, and TB. Externally it treats skin complaints, wounds, sores, burns, and boils, applied as liniment plasters, poultices, herbal steam baths, and inhalers. A poultice of the inner bark has been used to treat deep cuts. The leaves have been used in herbal steam baths to clear congested lungs, and also as a fumigant to revive a comatose patient.

Known Hazards

The wood, sawdust and resins from various species of pine can cause dermatitis in sensitive people.

Distribution

It is a temperate plant. It is cultivated in China. In Canada it grows in exposed places on poor soils in the Rocky Mountains. It suits hardiness zones 2-8. Arboretum Tasmania.

Where It Grows

Australia, Canada, China, Korea, North America, Tasmania, USA,

Cultivation

Thrives in a light well-drained sandy or gravelly loam. The trees have an extensive root system and are well adapted for growing in poor sandy soils, they are often used as a pioneer tree for reforestation. Dislikes poorly drained moorland soils and shady positions. Starts away well on almost any soil, whether poorly drained or shallow and dry. Established plants tolerate drought. A fast growing tree when young, but growth soon slows down and the tree is short-lived in Britain with no tree known to be older than 75 years. New shoots can be almost 1 metre long, though the tree remains spindly. An open-topped tree, though plants sometimes have a shrubby habit of growth. They can start producing seed when only a few years old. The cones are 4- 5cm long. They ripen in their second year but can remain un-opened on the tree for a number of years, only opening and shedding their seed after a forest fire has heated them to at least 50°c. This makes them one of the first colonizers of burnt land. Cultivated for timber in C. Europe. Plants are strongly outbreeding, self-fertilized seed usually grows poorly. They hybridize freely with other members of this genus. This species hybridises in the wild with the closely related P. contorta where their ranges overlap. There are several named varieties selected for their ornamental value. Leaf secretions inhibit the germination of seeds, thereby inhibiting the growth of other plants below the tree. Plants in this genus are notably susceptible to honey fungus.

Propagation

Sow seed in individual pots in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe, or in late winter if not possible. A short stratification of 6 weeks at 4°c can improve germination of stored seed. Plant seedlings into permanent positions as soon as possible and protect them for the first winter or two. Plants have a very sparse root system and establish best when moved young — ideally between 30 and 90cm tall, though we plant them out at around 5–10cm tall. A thorough weed-excluding mulch helps them establish well. Larger transplants check badly and may put on little growth for several years, which also impairs root development and wind resistance. Cuttings work only when taken from trees less than 10 years old. Use single leaf fascicles with the base of the short shoot; disbudding the shoots a few weeks before taking cuttings can help. Cuttings are normally slow to establish.

Other Uses

A tan or green dye is obtained from the needles. Various Native North American peoples made string from the long roots of this species to stitch the bark of canoes. In sandy soils, the roots extend near the surface for perhaps 10 metres and can be pulled out whole. Gathered roots were coiled and submerged in water until the outer bark loosened, then peeled and split in half, each half forming a serviceable cord for sewing canoes and bark strips used in roofing wigwams and other purposes. The needles contain terpene, released when rain washes over them, which inhibits the germination of some plants including wheat. Oleo-resins occur in all pine tissues but are not always present in quantities that make extraction economically worthwhile. Resins are obtained by tapping the trunk or by destructive distillation of the wood; trees from warmer regions generally yield more. Turpentine makes up an average of 20% of the oleo-resin and is separated by distillation, with uses as a solvent for waxes, in varnish-making, and medicinally. Rosin, the residue after turpentine removal, is used by violinists and in sealing wax and varnish. Pitch from the resin is used for waterproofing and as a wood preservative. The wood is fairly light, soft, coarse, and weak, weighing 27lb per cubic foot; it is mainly used for fuel, though also occasionally for posts, pulp, and lumber.

Production

Seed crops begin at 5-10 years of age and occur almost every year afterwards. Cones mature in 2 years. Trees can live for 150 years.

Notes

There are over 100 species of Pinus.

Synonyms

Also Known As

Bei mei duan ye song, Banksia pine, Grey pine, Scrub pine

References (10)

• Cundall, P., (ed.), 2004, Gardening Australia: flora: the gardener's bible. ABC Books. p 1047
• Descr. Pinus ed. 1, 1:7, t. 3. 1803
• Farrar, J.L., 1995, Trees of the Northern United States and Canada. Iowa State University press/Ames p 58
• Fu Liguo, Li Nan, Mill, R.R., Pinaceae. Flora of China.
• Kuhnlein, H. V. and Turner, N. J., 1991, Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples. Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology Volume 8. Gordon and Breach. p 41

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