HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE TREES OF THE TAHOE REGION
By "trees" in this chapter I mean only the evergreen trees--the pines,
firs, spruces, hemlocks, cedars, junipers and tamaracks. Many visitors
like to know at least enough when they are looking at a tree, to tell
which of the above species it belongs to. All I aim to do here is to
seek to make clear the distinguishing features of the various
trees, and to give some of the more readily discernible signs of the
different varieties of the same species found in the region.
It must not be forgotten that tree growth is largely dependent upon
soil conditions. The soil of the Tahoe region is chiefly glacial
detritus.
On the slopes and summits of the ridges it is sandy, gravelly,
and liberally strewn with masses of drift bowlders. The flats
largely formed of silting while they still constituted beds
of lakes, have a deep soil of fine sand and mold resting on
coarse gravel and bowlder drift. Ridges composed of brecciated
lavas, which crumble easily under the influence of atmospheric
agencies, are covered with soil two or three feet, or even
more, in depth, where gentle slopes or broad saddles have
favored deposition and prevented washing. The granite areas of
the main range and elsewhere have a very thin soil. The flats
at the entrance of small streams into Lake Tahoe are covered
with deep soil, owing to deposition of vegetable matter
brought from the slopes adjacent to their channels. As a
whole, the soil of the region is of sufficient fertility to
support a heavy forest growth, its depth depends wholly on
local circumstances
favoring washing and removal of the soil elements as fast
as formed, or holding them in place and compelling
accumulations.[1]
Coniferous species of trees constitute fully ninety-five per cent.
of the arborescent growth in the region. The remaining five per
cent. consists mostly of different species of oak, ash, maple,
mountain-mahogany, aspen, cottonwood, California buckeye, western
red-bud, arborescent willows, alders, etc.
Of the conifers the species are as follows: yellow pine, _pinus
ponderosa_; Jeffrey pine, _pinus jeffreyi_; sugar pine, _pinus
lambertiana_; lodge-pole pine, _pinus murrayana_; white pine, _pinus
monticola_; digger pine, _pinus sabiniana_; white-bark pine, _pinus
albicaulis_; red fir, _pseudotsuga taxifolia_; white fir, _abies
concolor_; Shasta fir, _abies magnifica_; patton hemlock or alpine
spruce, _tsuga pattoniana_; incense cedar, _libocedrus decurrens_;
western juniper, _juniperus occidentalis_; yew, _taxus brevifolia_.
[Footnote 1: John B. Leiberg, in _Forest Conditions in the Northern
Sierra Nevada_.]
The range and chief characteristic of these trees, generally speaking,
are as follows:
_Digger Pine_. This is seldom found in the Tahoe region, except
in the lower reaches of the canyons on the west side of the range. It
is sometimes known as the Nut Pine, for it bears a nut of which the
natives are very fond. It has two cone forms, one in which the spurs
point straight down, the other in which they are more or less curved
at the tip. They grow to a height of forty to fifty and occasionally
ninety feet high; with open crown and thin gray foliage.
_Western Juniper_. This is a typical tree of the arid regions
east of the Sierra, yet it is to be found scattered throughout the
Tahoe country, generally at an elevation between five thousand and
eight thousand feet. It ranges in height from ten to twenty-five or
even sixty-five feet. Its dull red bark, which shreds or flakes
easily, its berries, which begin a green color, shade through to
gray, and when ripe are a rich purple, make it readily discernible.
It is a characteristic feature of the scenery at timber line in many
Tahoe landscapes.
With the crowns beaten by storms into irregular shapes,
often dead on one side but flourishing on the other, the tops
usually dismantled and the trunks excessively thickened at
base, such figures, whether erect, half overthrown or wholly
crouching, are the most picturesque of mountain trees and are
frequently of very great age.--_Jepson_.
_Yew_. This is not often found and then only in the west canyons
above the main range. It is a small and insignificant tree, rarely
exceeding forty feet in height. It has a thin red-brown smooth bark
which becomes shreddy as it flakes off in thin and rather small
pieces. The seeds are borne on the under side of the sprays and
when mature set in a fleshy scarlet cup, the whole looking like a
brilliantly colored berry five or six inches long. They ripen in July
or August.
_Incense Cedar_. This is commonly found all over the region at
elevations below 7500 feet, though its chief habitat is at elevations
of 3500 to 6000 feet. It grows to a height of fifty to one hundred and
fifty feet, with a strongly conical trunk, very thick at the base, and
gradually diminishing in size upward. The bark is thick, red-brown,
loose and fibrous, and when the tree is old, broken into prominent
heavy longitudinal furrows. The cones are red-brown, oblong-ovate when
closed, three-fourths to an inch long.
_Shasta Fir_. This is found on the summits, slopes and shores
of Lake Tahoe, and to levels 6200 feet in elevation on the slopes and
summits directly connected with the main range. It is found along the
Mount Pluto ridge. It is essentially a tree of the mountains, where
the annual precipitation ranges from fifty inches upward. In the Tahoe
region it is locally known as the red fir. Sometimes it is called the
red bark fir and golden fir. It grows from sixty to even one hundred
and seventy-five feet high with trunk one to five feet in diameter and
a narrowly cone-shaped crown composed of numerous horizontal strata of
fan-shaped sprays. The bark on young trees is whitish or silvery, on
old trunks dark red, very deeply and roughly fissured. The cones when
young are of a beautiful dull purple, when mature becoming brown.
_White Pine_. This is found on northern slopes as low down as
6500 feet, though it generally ranges above 7000 feet, and is quite
common. It sometimes is called the silver pine, and generally in the
Tahoe region, the mountain pine. It grows to a height of from fifty to
one hundred and seventy-five feet, the branches slender and spreading
or somewhat drooping, and mostly confined to the upper portion of the
shaft. The trunk is from one to six feet in diameter and clothed with
a very smooth though slightly checked whitish or reddish bark. The
needles are five (rarely four) in a place, very slender, one to three
and three-fourths inches long, sheathed at the base by thinnish narrow
deciduous scales, some of which are one inch long. The cones come in
clusters of one to seven, from six to eight or rarely ten inches
long, very slender when closed and usually curved towards the tip,
black-purple or green when young, buff-brown when ripe. It is best
recognized by its light-gray smooth bark, broken into squarish
plates, its pale-blue-green foliage composed of short needles, and its
pendulous cones so slender as to give rise to the name "Finger-Cone
Pine."
_Sugar Pine_. This is found on the lower terraces of Tahoe,
fringing the region with a sparse and scattering growth, but it is
not found on the higher slopes of the Sierra. On the western side
its range is nearly identical with that of the red fir. It grows from
eighty to one hundred and fifty feet high, the young and adult trees
symmetrical, but the aged trees commonly with broken summits or
characteristically flat-topped with one or two long arm-like branches
exceeding shorter ones. The trunk is from two to eight feet in
diameter, and the bark brown or reddish, closely fissured into rough
ridges. The needles are slender, five in a bundle, two to three and a
half inches long. The cones are pendulous, borne on stalks at the
end of the branches, mostly in the very summit of the tree, very
long-oblong, thirteen to eighteen inches long, four to six inches in
diameter when opened.
This pine gains its name from its sugary exudation, sought by
the native tribes, which forms hard white crystallized nodules
on the upper side of fire or ax wounds in the wood. This flow
contains resin, is manna-like, has cathartic properties, and
is as sweet as cane-sugar. The seeds are edible. Although very
small they are more valued by the native tribes than the large
seeds of the Digger Pine on account of their better flavor.
In former days, when it came October, the Indians went to the
high mountains about their valleys to gather the cones. They
camped on the ridges where the sugar pines grow and celebrated
their sylvan journey by tree-climbing contests among the men.
In these latter days, being possessed of the white man's
ax, they find it more convenient to cut the tree down. It is
undoubtedly the most remarkable of all pines, viewed either
from the standpoint of its economic value or sylvan interest.
It is the largest of pine trees, considered whether as to
weight or girth, and more than any other tree gives beauty and
distinction to the Sierran forest.--_Jepson_.
The long cones found in abundance about Tahoe Tavern are those of the
sugar pine.
_Yellow Pine and Jeffrey Pine_. These are practically one and
the same, though the latter is generally regarded as a variety and the
former the type. Mr. Leiberg says:
The two forms differ chiefly in the size of the cones, in the
tint and odor of the foliage, and in the color and thickness
of the bark, differences which are insufficient to constitute
specific characters. The most conspicuous of the above
differences is that in the size of the cones, which may
seemingly hold good if only a few hundred trees are examined.
But when one comes to deal with thousands of individuals
the distinction vanishes. It is common to find trees of the
Jeffrey type as to foliage and bark that bear the big cones,
and the characteristic smaller cones of the typical yellow
pine, both at the same time and on the same individual, while
old cones strewn about on the ground indicate that in some
seasons trees of the Jeffrey type produce only small-sized
cones. The odor and the color of leaves and bark are more or
less dependent on soil conditions and the inherent vitality
of the individual tree, and the same characters are found
in specimens belonging to the yellow and Jeffrey pine. It
is noticeable that the big-cone variety preferably grows at
considerable elevation and on rocky sterile ground, while the
typical form of the yellow pine prevails throughout the lower
regions and on tracts with a more generous soil.
The yellow pine has a wider range than any other of the Tahoe
conifers, though on the high, rocky areas, south and west of
Rubicon Springs it is lacking. It crosses from the western
slopes to the eastern sides of the Sierras and down into the
Tahoe basin over the heads of Miller and McKinney Creeks,
in both places as a thin line, or rather as scattering trees
mixed with Shasta fir and white pine.
It grows from sixty to two hundred and twenty-five feet high with
trunk two to nine feet in diameter. The limbs in mature trees are
horizontal or even drooping. The bark of typical trees is tawny
yellow or yellow-brown, divided by fissures into large smoothish
or scaly-surfaced plates which are often one to four feet long and
one-half to one and a quarter feet wide. The needles are in threes,
five to ten inches long; the cones reddish brown.
It must be noted, too, that "the bark is exceedingly variable,
black-barked or brown-barked trees, roughly or narrowly
fissured, are very common and in their extreme forms
very different in trunk appearance from the typical or
most-abundant 'turtle-back' form with broad, yellow or light
brown plates."--_Jepson_.
_Lodge Pole Pine_. The range of this tree is almost identical
with that of the Shasta fir, though here and there it is found at as
low an altitude as 4500 feet. It loves the margins of creeks, glades
and lakes situated at altitudes of 6000 feet and upward, where it
usually forms a fringe of nearly pure growth in the wet and swampy
portions of the ground. In the Tahoe region it is invariably called a
tamarack or tamarack pine. It is a symmetrical tree commonly reaching
as high as fifty to eighty feet, but occasionally one hundred and
twenty-five feet. When stunted, however, it is only a few feet. The
bark is remarkably thin, rarely more than one quarter inch thick,
light gray in color, very smooth but flaking into small thin scales.
There are only two needles to a bunch, in a sheath, one and a half to
two and three quarters inches long. The cones are chestnut brown, one
to one and three quarters inches long.
It is when sleeping under the lodge pole pines that you begin to
appreciate their perfect charm and beauty. You unroll your blankets
at the foot of a stately tree at night, unconscious and careless as to
what tree it is. During the night, when the moon is at the full, you
awaken and look up into a glory of shimmering light. The fine tapering
shape, the delicate fairy-like beauty, instantly appeal to the
sensitive soul and he feels he is in a veritable temple of beauty.
They are very sensitive trees. In many places a mere grass fire, quick
and very fierce for a short time, has destroyed quite a number.
_White Fir_. This follows closely the range of the incense cedar,
though in some places it is found as high as 8700 feet. It is one
of the most perfect trees in the Sierras. Ranging from sixty to one
hundred and fifty and even two hundred feet high, with a narrow crown
composed of flat sprays and a trunk naked for one-third to one-half
its height and from one to six feet in diameter, with a smooth bark,
silvery or whitish in young trees, becoming thick and heavily fissured
into rounded ridges on old trunks, and gray or drab-brown in color,
it is readily distinguishable, with its companion, the red fir, by the
regularity of construction of trunk, branch and branchlet. As Smeaton
Chase expresses it, "The fine smooth arms, set in regular formation,
divide and redivide again and again _ad infinitum_, weaving at
last into a maze of exquisitely symmetrical twigs and branchlets."
_Red Fir_. The range of the red fir is irregular. It occurs
on the Rubicon River and some of the headwaters of the west-flowing
streams, reaching a general height of 6000 feet, though it is
occasionally found as high as 7000 feet. In some parts of California
this is known as Douglas Spruce, and Jepson, in his _Silva of
California_ definitely states:
The name "fir" as applied to the species is so well
established among woodsmen that for the sake of
intelligibility the combination Douglas Fir, which prevents
confusion with the true firs and has been adopted by the
Pacific Coast Lumberman's Association, is here accepted,
notwithstanding that the name used by botanists, "Douglas
Spruce" is actually more fitting on account of the greater
number of spruce-like characteristics. It is neither true
spruce, fir, nor hemlock, but a marked type of a distinct
genus, namely, _pseudotsuga_.
It must not be confounded with the red silver fir (_Abies
Magnifica_) so eloquently described as the chief delight of the
Yosemite region by Smeaton Chase. It grows from seventy to two hundred
and fifty or possibly three hundred and fifty feet high, and is the
most important lumber tree of the country, considering the quality of
its timber, the size and length of its logs, and the great amount of
heavy wood and freedom from knots, shakes or defects. On young trees
the bark is smooth, gray or mottled, sometimes alder-like; on old
trunks one to six and a half inches thick, soft or putty-like, dark
brown, fissured into broad heavy furrows. The young rapid growth in
the open woods produces "red fir", the older slower growth in denser
woods is "yellow fir". Every tree to a greater or lesser extent
exhibits successively these two phases, which are dependent upon
situation and exposure.
The chief difference between the white and red fir is in the
_spiculae_ or leaves. Those of the red fir are shorter, stubbier
and stiffer than those of the white. The bark, however, is pretty
nearly alike in young trees and shows a marked difference when they
get to be forty to fifty years old.
_The Alpine Spruce_ (_Hesperopeuce Pattoniana_ Lemmon) is
found only in the highest elevations. Common in Alaska it is limited
in the Tahoe region to the upper points of forests that creep up
along glacier beds and volcanic ravines, close to perpetual ice. It
disappears at 10,000 feet altitude on Mt. Whitney and is found nowhere
south of this point. On Tallac, Mt. Rose and all the higher peaks
of the Tahoe region it is common, giving constant delight with its
slender shaft, eighty to a hundred feet high, and with a diameter at
its base of from six to twelve feet. It is only in the lower portions
of the belt where it occurs. Higher it is reduced to low conical
masses of foliage or prostrate creeping shrubs.
By many it is regarded as a hemlock, but it is not strictly so. It was
first discovered in 1852 by John Jeffrey, who followed David Douglas
in his explorations of the forests of the American Northwest.
In favorable situations, the lower limbs are retained and
become long, out-reaching, and spreading over the mountain
slope for many feet; the upper limbs are irregularly disposed,
not whorled; they strike downward from the start (so that it
is almost impossible to climb one of the trees for want of
foothold), then curving outward to the outline of the tree,
they are terminated by short, hairy branchlets that decline
gracefully, and are decorated with pendant cones which are
glaucous purple until maturity, then leather brown, with
reflexed scales.
The main stem sends out strong ascending shoots, the leading
one terminating so slenderly as to bend from side to side with
its many purple pendants before the wind, and shimmering in
the sunlight with rare beauty.--_Lemmon_.
On the slopes of Mt. Rose near timber line, which ranges from 9700 to
10,000 feet according to exposures, while still a tree of considerable
size, it loses its symmetrical appearance. Professor Kennedy says:
Buffeted by the fierce winter winds and snows, the branches on
the west side of the tree are either entirely wanting or very
short and gnarled, and the bark is commonly denuded. Unlike
its associate, _Pinus Albicaulis_, which is abundant as
a prostrate shrub far above timber line, the spruce is rarely
encountered above timber line at this place, but here and
there a hardy individual may be found lurking among the pines.
The greatest elevation at which it was noticed is 10,500 feet.
To me this is one of the most beautiful of Sierran trees. Its delicate
silvery hue, and the rarely exquisite shading from the old growth to
the new, its gracefulness, the quaint and fascinating tilt of its
tip which waveringly bends over in obedience to whichever breeze is
blowing makes it the most alluringly feminine of all the trees of the
Sierra Nevada.
It is interesting to note the differences in the cones, and in the way
they grow; singly, in clusters, at the end of branches, on the stems,
large, medium-sized, small, short and stubby, long and slender,
conical, etc. Then, too, while the pines generally have cones every
year, the firs seem to miss a year, and to bear only alternate years.
The gray squirrels are often great reapers of the cones, before they
are ripe. They cut them down and then eat off the tips of the scales
so that they present a pathetically stripped appearance.