Digger Pine

(Pinus sabiniana)

Color Photographs: © by and courtesy of Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences

Digger Pine (Pinus sabiniana)

Identifying Characters: The huge female cones, long flexible needles in bundles of 3, and California distribution will separate this species from all other pine species except Coulter Pine (see below).

Similar Species: Coulter Pine is closely related to Digger Pine. Coulter Pine, however is a straight trunked tree with lateral, nearly horizontal branches. Digger Pine, in contrast, has a crooked, forking trunk and the branches are not horizontal. The needles of Coulter Pine are blue-green and stiff, but those of Digger Pine are dull gray green and droop noticeably.

Measurements: Mature trees are usually between 40 and 50 feet tall, but occasional individuals reach as high as 80 feet and 3 to 4 feet in diameter.

Cones:  Cones elongate and ovate, 6 to 10 inches long; stalk present and strong and cone pendulous; cone scales triangular and bearing a stout, triangular, curved, apical spine with the spine pointing toward the base of the cone in the cones basal third.

Needles: Slender, flexible, hanging, and pale blue-green or gray-green with many fine white lines; needles in bundles of 3 and bundle sheath not shed after the first year; needles 8 to 12 inches long.

Bark: Dark gray, thick, and broken into scaly ridges, sometimes looking shaggy.

Native Range: A California endemic, Digger Pine grows between latitude 34° 30' and 41° 15' N. Generally found between elevations of 300 to 900 m (1,000 to 3,000 ft) in dry foothill woodland communities of California's Central Valley, natural stands of Digger Pine also grow from as low as 30 m (100 ft) at several locations on the floor of the Sacramento Valley to almost 2130 m (7,000 ft) near Sawtooth Peak in Inyo County (10). Digger pine is found in the Coast and Cascade Ranges, Klamath Mountains, southwestern Modoc Plateau, western Sierra Nevada, and Tehachapi Mountains, and over a broad environmental sweep, from the westerly edge of the Mojave Desert, to the Santa Lucia Mountains in Monterey County within sight of the Pacific surf. Digger pine is absent in a conspicuous 89-km (55-mi) gap near its southern Sierra Nevada limit. The cause of the gap is unknown but was noted as early as 1865. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Digger Pine is found on dry slopes and ridges of foothills and low mountains, usually in association with oaks and other species of conifers.