Priscilla Hollingsworth
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The Longleaf Pine cone:  What's so special about it?

6/26/2014

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Picture
First, I enjoyed making this drawing just because the pine cone is such a great-looking object.  In the green, unopened state, a pine cone has a solid form that is dense and satisfying.  The longleaf pine tree’s cones are the largest of any of the southern pine species.  And the pattern of scales follows an interesting mathematical pattern, though it may not be immediately clear exactly what it is.

I’ve learned through experience that the type of spiralling pattern seen on pine cones follows the Fibonacci number sequence.  For a fun, snappy 5-minute video on this topic, see Vi Hart’s Youtube episode “Doodling in Math: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant [1 of 3]”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0

There are a lot of interesting things to be learned about longleaf pine trees (Pinus palustris).  They are fairly easy to recognize because their needles are the longest.  My favorite longleaf life stage to look at is the bottlebrush form in which the young tree grows straight up to a height of 3 to 4 feet with no branches.  They do look like giant bottlebrushes (or if you haven’t seen a bottlebrush, think of a giant, very plushy pipe cleaner).  The “grass” stage is also aptly named – seedlings look a lot like a tuft of grass and remain in this state for several years before shooting up into bottlebrush form.  Mature trees reach a height of 110 feet or more, and can live 200 to 300 years.

Longleaf pines have an interesting connection to fire and the practice of controlled burning.  Since longleaf pine trees have a significant ability to survive fire at certain life stages (as seedlings, and then later when the trees have developed thick bark), this kind of tree will become relatively more abundant after a fire.  Periodic burning in longleaf pine habitat can create an open type of forest in which mature, tall longleaf pines form the upper canopy, with an open, grassy understory that harbors lots of biodiversity in terms of both plant and animal species.  This was the forest that Native Americans promoted over a number of centuries through the use of controlled burning, and later colonial settlers in our region continued the practice.  There are very few of these mature longleaf pine forests left, for various reasons including commercial emphasis on faster-growing pine species, reluctance to employ controlled burning, and encroaching development.

Picture
The photo above is from  http://www.tarleton.edu/Departments/range/Woodlands%20and%20Forest/
Longleaf%20Pine/longleafpine.htm

Find out more about visiting the Phinizy Swamp:http://naturalsciencesacademy.org/


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    Author

    Priscilla Hollingsworth, artist.

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Carl Purdy Music
    Cats
    Ceramics
    Ceramic Sculpture
    Clay Musical Instruments
    Collage
    Drawing
    Dyeing
    Exhibitions
    Flowers
    Folk Art Market
    Game Pieces
    Hand Spinning
    Howard Romero
    Hums & Oms
    Installation Art
    Lightning
    Master Naturalist
    Music And Art
    New Mexico
    Ojo Caliente
    Painting
    Performing Sculpture
    Phinizy Swamp
    Phinizy Swamp
    Porcelain
    Process
    Rainbows
    Rob Foster Music
    Santa Fe
    Sarah Fletcher Photos
    Sculpture
    Sketchbooks
    Snow
    Southern Observatory
    Spring
    Sunset
    Teapots
    Vermont Studio Center
    Water
    Westobou Festival

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