Jack Pine

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Jack Pine

The Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) is a North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n pine

Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
with its native range in Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
east of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
from Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories are a provinces and territories of Canada of Canada.Located in northern Canada, it borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south....
to Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada....
, and the northeast of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
from Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
to Maine

Maine

The State of Maine is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast....
, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana

Indiana

The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America....
. In the far west of its range, it hybridizes readily with the closely related lodgepole pine

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.There are three subspecies, one of them with two Variety ....
(P. contorta).

jack pine has a long list of minor alternative names, including eastern jack pine, gray pine, black pine and scrub pine; the last more commonly refers to Virginia Pine

Virginia Pine

The Virginia Pine is a medium-sized tree, often found on poorer soils from Long Island in southern New York south through the Appalachian Mountains to western Tennessee and Alabama....
(P.

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Encyclopedia

The Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana) is a North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
n pine
Pine

Pines are Pinophyta trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species....
with its native range in Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
east of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometre from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States....
from Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories are a provinces and territories of Canada of Canada.Located in northern Canada, it borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south....
to Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada....
, and the northeast of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
from Minnesota
Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with just over five million residents....
to Maine
Maine

The State of Maine is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast....
, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana
Indiana

The State of Indiana was the 19th U.S. state admitted into the union. It is located in the Midwestern United States of the United States of America....
. In the far west of its range, it hybridizes readily with the closely related lodgepole pine
Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen.There are three subspecies, one of them with two Variety ....
(P. contorta).

Etymology
The jack pine has a long list of minor alternative names, including eastern jack pine, gray pine, black pine and scrub pine; the last more commonly refers to Virginia Pine
Virginia Pine

The Virginia Pine is a medium-sized tree, often found on poorer soils from Long Island in southern New York south through the Appalachian Mountains to western Tennessee and Alabama....
(P. virginiana), and gray pine to P. sabineana
Gray Pine

The Gray Pine is a pine endemic to California in the United States. The tree typically grows to 12-15 m, but can reach 35 m in height. The needles of the Gray Pine are in fascicles of three, distinctively pale gray-green, sparse and drooping, and grow to 20-30 cm in length....
. The Canadian French name is Pin gris or (incorrectly) Cyprès.

Morphology
It is not a large tree
TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
, ranging from 9–22 m (30–72 ft) in height. Some jack pines are shrub-sized, due to poor growing conditions. The jack pine does not usually grow perfectly straight but when mature has an irregular shape similar to the pitch pine. This pine often forms pure stands on sandy or rocky soil. It is fire-adapted to stand-replacing fires, with the cones remaining closed for many years, until a forest fire kills the mature trees and opens the cones, reseeding the burnt ground.

The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are in fascicles of two, needle-like, twisted, slightly yellowish-green, and 2–4 cm (0.8–1.6 in) long. The cones
Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the plant sexuality structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds....
are 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) long, the scales with a small, fragile prickle that usually wears off before maturity, leaving the cones smooth. Unusually for a pine, the cones normally point forward along the branch, sometimes curling around it. That is an easy way to tell it apart from the similar lodgepole pine in more western areas of North America. The cones on mature trees are serotinous
Serotiny

Serotiny is the behaviour of some plant species that retain their non-dormant seeds in a conifer cone or woody fruit for up to several years, but release them after exposure to fire....
. They open when exposed to intense heat, greater than or equal to 50°C. The typical case is in a fire, however cones on the lower branches can open when temperatures reach 27°C due to the heat being reflected off the ground. Additionally, when temperatures reach -46°C, the cones will open, due to the nature of the resin.

Ecology
Kirtland's Warbler
Kirtland's Warbler

Kirtland's Warbler, Dendroica kirtlandii, is a small songbird of the New World warbler family , named after Jared Potter Kirtland, an Ohio doctor and amateur naturalist....
(Dendroica kirtlandii), an endangered
Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters....
bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
, depends on pure stands of young jack pine in a very limited area in the north of the Lower Peninsula
Lower Peninsula of Michigan

The Lower Peninsula of Michigan is surrounded by water on all sides except its southern border, which it shares with Ohio and Indiana. Geographically, the Lower Peninsula has a recognizable shape that many people associate with a mitten, with the mid-eastern region identified as The Thumb....
of Michigan
Michigan

Michigan is a Midwestern United States U.S. state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Anishinaabe language term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
for breeding. Mature jack pine forests are usually open, and the fall of their needles creates acidic soil, so blueberries are often abundant in the understory
Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows in the shade of the emergent or Canopy . Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs....
.

Young jack pines are an alternate host for sweet fern blister rust
Cronartium

Cronartium is a genus of rust in the family Cronartiaceae.They are heteroecious rusts with two alternating hosts, typically a pine and a flowering plant, and up to five spore stages....
(Cronartium comptoniae). Infected Sweet fern
Comptonia

Comptonia is a monotypic genus in the family Myricaceae, order Fagales. It is native to eastern North America, from southern Quebec south to the extreme north of Georgia , and west to Minnesota....
s (Comptonia peregrina) release powdery orange spores in the summer and nearby trees become infected in the fall. Diseased trees show vertical orange cankers on the trunk and galls on the lower branches. The disease does not tend to affect older trees.

Jack pines are also susceptible to Scleroderris canker
Scleroderris canker

Scleroderris canker , or Brunchorstia disease , Gremmeniella abietina, is a species of fungi diseases infecting coniferous forests. The main symptom is the death of the leafs, leading to the death of the tree....
(Gremmeniella abietina). This disease manifests by yellowing at the base of the needles. Prolonged exposure may lead to eventual death of the tree.

Insects that attack jack pine stands include white pine weevil
Pissodes strobi

White pine weevil or Engelmann spruce weevil is the primary weevil attacking and destroying white pines, described in 1817 by W. D. Peck, esq., Professor of Natural History and of Botany, Harvard University....
(Pissodes strobi), jack pine sawfly, and jack pine budworm.

Bibliography

Burns, R.M. 1990. Silvics of North America. Vol. 1 Conifers. USDS.