Pioneering Pine

While mowing the stretch of hillside above our stand of Italian Stone Pines (Pinus pinea), I came across three small seedlings that certainly appear to be one or two year old Italian Stone Pines.

It’s a bit of a mystery how the seedlings could be where they are, though — I suspect an animal was involved. Pine seeds are, of course, in pine cones — and unless pine cones are embued with magical powers, they don’t normally roll uphill. So I’m guessing a bird or a rodent moved those seeds uphill 20 or 30 feet.

These Italian Stone Pines do remarkably well in the chaparral zone — they don’t need good soil (and that’s a good thing around here!) and they don’t need much water as they have a wonderfully deep tap root. When we first bought our place seven years ago, we also had about six large Monterey pines — all of which died just two or three into the drought years. The Italian Stone Pines never even looked peaked…

Anyway, it’s nice to see them propagating…maybe I’ll end up with an Italian Stone Pine forest!