Yellow Pine

by Joshua Heston

Somehow, nothing better captures the spirit of these old hills, these pine forests of the Ozarks.

Stands of yellow pine — Pinus echinata specifically — often crowd out the sunlight itself, leaving only shadows and a thick, spongy blanket of reddish-brown needles.

Singularly, the trees reach a great height, often surpassing 90 feet. Their shape is distinctive, creating an almost-umbrella profile.

Hardy as they are, Pinus echinata seems to prefer certain altitudes and certain soil types, though in the rugged Ozark Mountains, yellow pine may be found thriving upon mostly rock.

Newcomers — tourists to the Ozarks, bent on visiting Branson — might concede the dogwood or perhaps the white oak as the tree of these hills.

But leave Branson and the busy four lanes of Highway 65 behind.

Walk to the top of Bear Den Mountain out near Mincy.

Travel on Highway 76 — no, not the Strip, the world’s longest parking lot — but East Highway 76, out toward Willow Springs.

Or better yet, get out into Shannon County, Missouri, where city lights are forgotten and the wind and the river and the night sky are immediate and real and inescapable.

And walk beneath the stands of yellow pine.

Take a deep breath and then just listen to the wind play games in the soft needles and branches above you.

And you may just begin to understand these hills.

January 24, 2010

Shortleaf Pine (pinus echinata)

Size: 80 to 100 feet tall; needs 2 1/2 - 5 inches long. What to look for: needles in 2s or 3s, dark green; cones with small prickles; bark almost black, scaly (young) or red-brown with large flat plates (mature); young twigs green, with purplish tinge. Habitat: sandy to dry, gravelly upland slopes.

— page 290, Wernett, Susan J., et al. North American Wildlife. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1986.