Since the year eight hundred and ten, the city of Venice, Italy, has remained strong and powerful with its ever-present clock tower and St. Mark’s Square. However, what few people know is that “The city of Venice rests in the heart of Alerce”. In the 9th century, the name ‘Pino’ had not yet been coined, so today if you translate that saying, you get: ‘The city of Venice rests in the hearts of Pine’. Today heart pine is a very valuable building asset, so imagine that the entire city of Venice rests on hundreds of thousands of antiques, ‘pine hearts’, log, bark and all.
Pine trees throughout the world have been, since the beginning of time, a key factor in the advancement of humanity. When the cavemen discovered fire, it was such a hot commodity that to keep their precious new discovery burning overnight, they collected pinecones from towering pine forests and placed them on burning embers. The resin would act with the humidity of the pineapples and burn for hours. The next morning, the Neanderthals were able to stoke the fire, and wisps of smoke billowed out, and as they added slag pine twigs and small, dry, lit twigs, flames began to erupt. The men caught fish with newts made from twisted and carved pine branches, and killed wild boar and small game with spears dug out of the small, narrow trunks of young pines. While the women made loincloths out of large animal skins and cooked food over flames, the men were experimenting with construction. Some believe that the caveman became the Neanderthal when he learned to build. Evolving men would drive poles into the ground and tie pine branches to the top using the tendons of the animals, and the resin from the pine was used to help secure the needles of the pine trees to the ceiling for shelter.
Pines are evergreen, coniferous trees (cones) found in all parts of the world (six of the seven continents). There are approximately one hundred and twenty species of pine trees. There are short pines, tall pines, broad pines, skinny pines, and colored pines. Pines have needle-like green to blue-gray leaves that are arranged in bundles of two to five or six to eight, depending on the species. Pine cones range in size from ½ “to 12 inches. Longleaf pine, Pinus paulustris, has one of the largest cones, up to 10 inches, and Mugo pine, Pinus mugo, has one of the largest cones. smaller than ¾ “. to 2 “. Pines can rise up to 130 feet tall, like the longleaf pine, or grow to a shrub 8 feet tall, like the Mugo pines.
Pines are so adaptable that they are known to naturally cross-pollinate between species to evolve into an improved species. This is the case of the Southeastern Sonderegger Pine, Pinus palastris x Pinus teada. A natural hybrid cross between Longleaf Pine and Loblolly pine that takes on the best qualities of both species: longer pine needles and thicker pine cones with constant faster growth, resulting in a mature tree over a period of time incredibly short.
Pines are the main source of paper products and building materials in the world. The stone pine, Pinus teada, is one of the major timber species in the United States, growing from New Jersey to Florida and Texas. The woods of this species are very compact and make them an excellent choice for pine floors.
In the 19th century, pine growers noticed that pine sap could be harvested and boiled with various by-products that could be traded equally, which made the “Tree Sap Boom” so successful. Tall oil could be taken for coughs and sore throats, and some soaps and glues were also processed, with turpentine as the main by-product. The pines also began to be harvested at this time on a commercial level, devastating forests to make paper and build houses.
Pine trees are also known around the world in the open air as a survival plant. The cambium, or sub-bark, is moist and almost sweet, but rich in vitamins A and C. In Sweden, during winter, Swedes often prepare ‘strunt’ tea from the needles and tiny baby pine cones of Pinus nigra – European Black Pine or Austrian Pine.
The recommended pine cultivars for planting and growing in the United States, whether you are growing them as a sample tree, or planting entire plantations of pine trees, are as follows: Loblolly Pine, Pinus taeda; Longleaf pine, Pinus palustris; Mugo Pine, Pinus mugo ‘Compacta’; Slash pine, Pinus elliottii; Sonderegger pine, Pinus x ‘Sondereggeri’; and white pine, Pinus strobus.
“It is strange that so few come to the forest to see how the pine tree lives and grows and rises, raising its evergreen arms to the light ….. to see its perfect success.” – Henry David Thoreau