Pinus coulteri, Coulter Pine (31)

The striking feature of the Coulter Pine is its absolutely huge cones. They are the most massive cone of any pine in the world (Lewis, 1983). If mass alone weren’t enough for these suspended bombs, the scales of the cone also have large, curved, very fierce looking hooks at their tips. As if the mass and fierceness weren’t enough, the often grow in bundles of several cones and have a tendency to fall off the tree. A word to the wise Boy Scout: don’t camp under a Coulter Pine.

The needles of the Coulter Pine are in groups of 3, 6 inches to 12 inches long, and are blue green. The bark of mature trees is thick and fissured. The Coulter Pine grows between Contra Costa County and Baja California in Chaparral environments from about 500 feet to about 7000 feet (Mirov, 1967). As a result, it has developed fire tolerance and actually needs fire for regeneration. The heat of the fire is necessary to melt the resin that holds the scales of the cones shut and to open the cones. The massive (but, in most cases, ultimately futile) attempts at fire suppression in Chaparral have had negative effects on Coulter Pine reproduction (Stuart and Sawyer, 2001).

Native Californians used the Coulter Pine as a source of food. The large cones produced many pine nuts that contained important nutrients (Stuart and Sawyer, 2001). Today, the Coulter Pine is sometimes used for timber.