Pinus lambertiana is the tallest and most massive pine tree, and has the longest cones of any conifer. The species name lambertiana was given by the British botanist David Douglas, who named the tree in honour of the English botanist, Aylmer Bourke Lambert. It is native to the mountains of the Pacific coast of North America, from Oregon through California to Baja California. The massive 31 Gigabase mega-genome of sugar pine has been sequenced in 2016 by the large PineRefSeq consortium.
Description
Growth
The Sugar Pine is the tallest and largest Pinus species, commonly growing to tall, exceptionally to tall, with a trunk diameter of, exceptionally. The tallest recorded specimen is tall, is located in Yosemite National Park, and was discovered in 2015. The second tallest recorded was "Yosemite Giant", an tall specimen in Yosemite National Park, which died from a bark beetle attack in 2007. The tallest, known, living specimens today grow in southern Oregon and Yosemite National Park: one in Umpqua National Forest is tall and another in Siskiyou National Forest is tall. Yosemite National Park also has the third tallest, measured to tall as of June 2013; the Rim Fire affected this specimen, but it survived. Pinus lambertiana is a member of the white pine group and, like all members of that group, the leaves grow in fascicles of five, with a deciduous sheath. They are long. Sugar pine is notable for having the longest cones of any conifer, mostly long, exceptionally to long, although the cones of the Coulter pine are more massive. The seeds are long, with a long wing that aids their dispersal by wind. Sugar pine never grows in pure stands, always in a mixed forest and is shade tolerant in youth.
The sugar pine has been severely affected by the white pine blister rust, a fungus that was accidentally introduced from Europe in 1909. A high proportion of sugar pines have been killed by the blister rust, particularly in the northern part of the species' range that has experienced the rust for a longer period of time. The rust has also destroyed much of the Western white pine and whitebark pine throughout their ranges. The U.S. Forest Service has a program for developing rust-resistant sugar pine and western white pine. Seedlings of these trees have been introduced into the wild. The Sugar Pine Foundation in the Lake Tahoe Basin has been successful in finding resistant sugar pine seed trees and has demonstrated that it is important for the public to assist the U.S. Forest Service in restoring this species. However, blister rust is much less common in California, and sugar, Western white and whitebark pines still survive in great numbers there.
Etymology
considered sugar pine to be the "king of the conifers". The common name comes from the sweet resin, which Native Americans used as a sweetener. John Muir found it preferable to maple sugar. It is also known as the great sugar pine. The scientific name was assigned by David Douglas in honor of Aylmer Bourke Lambert.
Uses
According to David Douglas, Native Americans ate the sweetish seeds. Native Americans also ate the sweet sap, but in small quantities due to its laxative properties. The odorless wood is also preferred for packing fruit, as well as storing drugs and other goods. Its straight grain also makes it a useful organ pipe material.
Folklore
In the Achomawicreation myth, Annikadel, the creator, makes one of the 'First People' by intentionally dropping a sugar pine seed in a place where it can grow. One of the descendants in this ancestry is Sugarpine-Cone man, who has a handsome son named Ahsoballache. After Ahsoballache marries the daughter of To'kis the Chipmunk-woman, his grandfather insists that the new couple have a child. To this end, the grandfather breaks open a scale from a sugar pine cone, and secretly instructs Ahsoballache to immerse the scale's contents in spring water, then hide them inside a covered basket. Ahsoballache performs the tasks that night; at the next dawn, he and his wife discover the infant Edechewe near their bed. The Washo language has a word for sugar pine, simt'á:gɨm, and also a word for "sugar pine sugar", nanómba.
