Prescribed burning has been used in some areas to restore species balance.The tallest tree was 232 feet, and the oldest tree was 600 years.Its elevation ranges from 500 to 3,500 feet in Northern California and 5,300 to 7,300 feet in Southern California.Temperatures annual average 41 to 50 F with extremes ranging from -40 to 100 F.
Being drought tolerant, it out competes other species to occupy the transition zone between grassland and forest. One band of relatively pure ponderosa pine stands occurs along this transition zone on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. ![]() ![]() Its distribution on drier sites depends on soil moisture, which depends on soil texture and depth. The species grows better on soils which are medium in texture and, hence, release their moisture to plants readily. Because ponderosa pine needs less nitrogen and phosphorus to grow its needles, the tree can grow well in soils which are not fertile enough for other species. Fm wizard editor 1731 downloadThe tree flowers from April to June of the first year, and cones mature and shed seeds in August and September of the second year. How to put exponents in google docs for macSeeds are relatively small (7,000 to 23,000 in one pound) and fall only about 100 feet from the parent tree. Trees may start to bear cones as early as seven years old and continue for 350 years, and those over 25 inches in diameter are the best producers. Seeds are damaged or eaten by insects, birds, and small mammals such as mice, chipmunks, and tree squirrels. Young seedlings can withstand higher temperatures than most associates including Douglas-fir, white fir, and sugar pine but are more easily damaged from frost (23 F) than other trees. Seedlings put out a taproot which can grow up to 20 inches or more in the first two months, in well-watered soils. Mature trees have roots down to 6 feet in porous soils and may extend laterally 150 feet in open stands. In denser stands, roots are generally as wide as the trees crown. In the Coast Range, it grows as a component of the mixed-evergreen forest type, rarely in pure stands. Although seedlings are killed by fire, larger trees possess thick bark, which protects them from fire damage. Fire resistance is also fostered by the species characteristically open crown and tendency to self-prune limbs when mature, which reduces fuel ladders. Pines can survive and grow after fires even when half of their crowns have been scorched. Fire suppression over the last 100 years has allowed unnaturally high buildup of fuels and allowed ponderosa pine dominated stands to be crowded with white fir.
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