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Del Mar Pine

The Pinus Torreyana is commonly known as Del Mar Pine, Santa Rosa Island Torrey Pine, Soledad Pine, as well as Torrey Pine

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Growing Regions

Torrey pine is the rarest pine in North America [9]. The natural distribution of Torrey pine consists of two disjunct populations. The mainland population, in and near the Torrey Pines State Reserve (TPSR), is confined to the low coastal bluffs flanking the Soledad Valley in San Diego County, California. It consists of approximately 7,000 trees [7,22]. The other population occurs on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of southern California, 175 miles (280 km) northwest of the mainland population [7,13,22]. This population consists of approximately 2,000 trees [20].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of Torrey pine is Pinus torreyana Parry. There are no recognized varieties or forms. There are two recognized subspecies [14,34]: Pinus torreyana ssp. insularis Haller Pinus torreyana ssp. torreyana.

The Torrey pine forest is the only southern California coastal pine
forest [26,33].  Torrey pine part of the California closed-cone pine
forests [37,41].  These forests merge with coastal sage scrub,
chaparral, dune scrub, and coastal salt marsh [37].  On Santa Rosa
Island, Torrey pine is a member of the Torrey pine woodland.  This
community ranges from a monotypic assemblage of Torrey pine with a
litter understory to more open stands that resemble woodlands mixed with
California scrub oak (Quercus dumosa) and shrubs [5].

Torrey pine is listed as a codominant or dominant species in the
following publications:

Plant communities of Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park [5]
The closed-cone pines and cypress [37]  
Preliminary descriptions of the terrestrial natural communities of
  California [41]
Plant communities of southern California [42].  
  
Some species commonly associated with Torrey pine include chamise
(Adenostoma fasciculatum), California sagebrush (Artemesia californica),
toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), lemonadeberry (Rhus integrifolia),
California scrub oak, mule fat (Baccharis viminea), bush poppy
(Dendromecon rigida), California encelia (Encelia californica), white
sage (Salvia apiana), black sage (S. mellifera), saw-toothed goldenbush
(Haplopappus squarrosus), Costa Baja manzanita (Arctostaphylos
glandulosa ssp. crassifolia), Santa Rosa Island manzanita (A.
confertiflora), California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum),
warty-stem ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus), feltleaf ceanothus (C.
arboreus), western yarrow (Achillea millefolium), sea fig (Carpobrotus
chilensis), iceplant (Mesembryanthemum spp.), Indian paintbrush
(Castilleja spp.), monkeyflower (Mimulus spp.), California poppy
(Eschscholzia californica), sedge (Carex globosa), oniongrass (Melica
imperfecta), bent grass (Agrostis spp.), slender wild oat (Avena
barbata), and purple cudweed (Gnaphalium purpureum).

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Esser, Lora L. 1993. Pinus torreyana. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available at USDA Forest Service.

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