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Pine
The Pine - or genus Pinus - are evergreen trees. This means the leaves do not fall off all together in the fall. They have their green needly leaves all year long. The pine tree creates pine cones as their seeds.The trees in these photos are all White Pines - Pinus strobus. You can tell because white pine needles grow in bunches of five. White pine trees used to grow in giant forests all along eastern North America but the white pine proved to be fantastically useful in building houses, boats, furniture and more. The forests were all chopped down. Luckily, white pine is making a comeback. If you look at a map, the range is as far west as Michigan and as far south as Virginia.
The other type of pine we RARELY have in Massachusetts is the Red Pine which was deliberately planted at Purgatory Chasm.
You can see tons of white pine trees at Purgatory Chasm. There are smaller ones by the pond to the north side of Purgatory Chasm, and huge, tall ones by the ranger station.
In this photo the white pine tree is the smaller tree in front. The pine tree is the thin tree, not the thick, deeply ridged tree.
Where "Christmas Trees" like firs have very thick groups of needles, pine trees have long, slender needles.
Here are the very tall white pine trees found near the Purgatory Chasm ranger station:
To be even more specific about white pine tree needles, they come out in clusters of five needles each. You can count them!
The bark of a pine tree has light ridging. This one has some moss on it.
This one looked like it had morse code in it.
Younger pine trees have subtler ridging.
The seeds of pine trees are pine cones.
If you're at Purgatory Chasm, here is how to tell the difference between the red pines and white pines - by the bark:
 Red Pine Bark |
 White Pine Bark |
Trees of Sutton Massachusetts
Massachusetts Foliage Photo Collection
Sutton Massachusetts Photo Album
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