WHAT KIND OF PINE TREE IS THAT?
By Barbara Washington The Spring Mountains are home to several types of evergreen trees. General categories of evergreens are pines, spruces, firs, and junipers. There are a few easy rules that enable us to quickly identify individual species. The three basic identification keys are the needles, the cones and the bark. 1) Needles can be single or in bundles up to five. A thin sheath may be found covering the base of the needles. Observe the length, shape and stiffness of the needles. 2) Next, look at the cones. The scales are either thick and woody or thin and papery. Cones are either pendant, hanging downward, or erect, standing up. 3) Last, look at the bark to determine the color and surface texture, platy, scaly or stringy. The following guidelines apply to the evergreens that are present in the Spring Mountains and surrounding forests, and in all but three cases, identification can be made using only the needles. A. NEEDLES: 1) Sheathed Needles: All sheathed needles are found on pi
