* Map courtesy of WikiMedia.org, it is release under the Creative Commons License.

Pinus Sabiniana

The Pinus Sabiniana is commonly known as Bull Pine, Foothills Pine, as well as Gray Pine

< Go Back

Growing Regions

Gray pine is endemic to California. It is distributed from Siskiyou County south through the foothills of the Klamath, Cascade, and Coast ranges and the Sierra Nevada to Ventura County [23,39,40]. Near its southernmost Sierra Nevada limit, gray pine is absent from a 55-mile (89-km) stretch between Kings River and the South Fork of the Tule River [23].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name for gray pine is Pinus sabiniana Dougl. [36,39]. There are no recognized subspecies, varieties, or forms [40].

Gray pine and blue oak (Quercus douglasii) occur together over much of
California's oak woodlands.  The blue oak-gray pine community varies in
stand density and composition, often sharing dominance with several
other tree species.  The understory may be mostly grasses, shrubs, or
mixtures of both [16].  Pure stands of gray pine occur in localized
areas of serpentine soil [21], but more often, blue oak provides more
cover within the community type.  At lower elevations, the blue oak-gray
pine woodland grades into chaparral, valley oak (Q. lobata) woodland, or
Oregon white oak (Q. garryana) woodland.  At higher elevations, it mixes
with California black oak (Q. kelloggii) or ponderosa pine (Pinus
ponderosa) forest [16,26].  In its easternmost distribution, gray pine
merges with desert communities such as western juniper (Juniperus
occidentalis) and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) near the Great
Basin and singleleaf pinyon (P. monophylla)-California juniper (J.
californica) near the Mojave Desert [16].

Plant associates:  Overstory associates not mentioned in Habitat Types
and Plant Communities or SAF Cover Types include Coulter pine (P.
coulteri), California buckeye (Aesculus californica), interior live oak
(Quercus wislizenii), bigcone Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga macrocarpa), and
MacNab cypress (Cupressus macnabiana) [3,11,18,26,43].

Common shrub associates include toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia),
wedgeleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus cuneatus), chamise (Adenostoma
fasciculatum), California scrub oak (Q. dumosa), desert scrub oak (Q.
turbinella), California buckthorn (Rhamnus californicus), common
manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita), birchleaf mountain-mahogany
(Cercocarpus betuloides), poison-oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum),
Sargent cypress (Cupressus sargentii), and hollyleaf cherry (Prunus
ilicifolia) [2,3,11,24,26].

Common ground associates include slender oat (Avena barbata), California
buckwheat (Erigonum fasciculatum), soft chess (Bruomus hordeaceus),
ripgut brome (B. rigidus), cutleaf filaree (Erodium cicutarium), bur
clover (Medicago hispida), ground lupine (Lupinus bicolor), and tarweed
(Hemizonia spp.) [3,8,24].

Publications listing gray pine as a dominant or codominant species are
as follows:

A classification system for California's hardwood rangelands [2]
Blue oak communities in California [3]
Association types in the North Coast Ranges of California [12]
Natural terrestrial communities of California [26]

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Howard, Janet L. 1992. Pinus sabiniana. 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.

< Go Back