Plant/Tree Day

Good morning Tuesday, school goes back today, also bloody cold, anyway it's plant day and today's plant is the Ponderosa Pine, it's technical name is Pinus Ponderosa but is commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous of western North America. It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America regions.

Their bark smells like vanilla or butterscotch. The 4-8 inch long evergreen needles, thick and flexible,three to a bundle, droop gracefully from their branches.

They are large trees that live for 500 or more years. For the first 150 or so years, young ones have nearly black barke

These trees don't mind a small to medium fire because that would destroy any small plants growing around them, a big fire is a risk as that may reach higher branches.

They have a few survival tactics they have thick plates of armour-like bark which can be scorched on the outside while the insides stay safe. If a piece of bark does catch fire it will throw itself t o the ground taking the flames with it.

It''s wood,twigs and leaves hold a lot of water so not very flammable, aa it grows taller the lower branches drop off, so a fire can burn around the ground and not spread to the branches.