Text File | 1994-05-02 | 890 b | 3 lines | [TEXT/MSWD]
The Ponderosa Pine is one of the most majestic in the Park. The older trees are immediately recognizable by their height, the redness of the bark constrasted with the white snow, and the openness of their groves. They grow from 80 to 200 feet tall and live to be over 400 hundred years old.
They can be distinquished by their needles growing in clusters of three and by the large, flat, reddish plates of their bark (on older trees). They grow most often on sunny slopes, usually south facing in the Park, and in groups that are spaced apart, due to their extensive root system and competition for water. This tends to make relatively open areas in the forest (compared, for instance, to Lodgepole pine forests). Their cones are generally 3 to 5 inches long with spiked scales and grow on short stalks. Their young shoots have a distinctive oder of oranges when broken. #
