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Sugar Pine

The Pinus Lambertiana is commonly known as Sugar Pine,

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Growing Regions

Sugar pine extends from the western slope of the Cascade Range in north-central Oregon to the Sierra San Pedro Martir in Baja California. Its distribution is almost continuous through the Klamath and Siskiyou mountains and on western slopes of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada. Smaller and more disjunct populations are found in the Coast Range of southern Oregon and California, Transverse and Peninsula ranges of southern California, and east of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada crests. Its southern extremity is an isolated population high on a plateau in the Sierra San Pedro Martir in Baja California, Mexico.  Over 80 percent of its distribution is in California [16,21].

     

General Information

The currently accepted scientific name of sugar pine is Pinus lambertiana Dougl. [24]. There are no recognized subspecies, varieties, or forms.

Sugar pine usually occurs in mixed-conifer forest stands with a wide
variety of overstory associates including ponderosa and Jeffrey pine
(Pinus ponderosa and P. jeffreyi), California red fir (Abies magnifica),
white fir (A. concolor), noble fir (A. procera), and Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii) [4,21].  In southern California, sugar pine is
characteristically found in vegetation types of the woodland and
timberland chaparral zones.  Canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) is
found with sugar pine on more mesic sites, while at higher elevations
sugar pine occurs with mountain whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus), Parry
manzanita (Arctostaphylos parryana var. pinctorum), and bush chinquapin
(Chrysolepsis sempervirens) [14].

Publications listing sugar pine as a codominant species in plant
vegetation types (vts) or community types (cts) are listed as follows:

Area                   Classification                       Authority
----                   --------------                       ---------
s CA                    forest (vts)                        Horton 1960
s CA                    forest (cts)                        Thorne 1977
  CA                    forest (cts)                        Thorne 1976

Much of the information presented here is attributed to:
Habeck, R. J. 1992. Pinus lambertiana. 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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