{{Short description|Species of tree}} {{About|the tree|the painting by Tom Thomson|The Jack Pine}} {{Speciesbox | image = Pinus banksiana.jpg | image_caption = Young jack pine | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 |status_ref=<ref name="iucn status 12 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Farjon, A. |date=2013 |title=''Pinus banksiana'' |volume=2013 |article-number=e.T42346A2974230 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T42346A2974230.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref> | status2 = {{TNCStatus}} | status2_system = TNC | status2_ref = <ref name="NatureServe">{{cite web |last1=NatureServe |title=''Pinus banksiana'' |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.137380/Pinus_banksiana |access-date=5 September 2024 |location=Arlington, Virginia |date=2024}}</ref> | display_parents = 3 | genus = Pinus | parent = Pinus subsect. Contortae | species = banksiana | authority = Lamb. | range_map = Pinus banksiana range map.png | range_map_caption = Native range | synonyms = {{Species list |Pinus divaricata|(Aiton) Dum.Cours. |Pinus divaricata|(Aiton) Sudw. nom. illeg. |Pinus hudsonica|Poir. |Pinus rupestris|Michx.f. |Pinus sylvestris ''var.'' divaricata|Aiton }} | synonyms_ref = <ref>{{ThePlantList | id = kew-2563220 | taxon = Pinus banksiana | authority = Lamb.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=379838 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021024451/http://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=379838 |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 21, 2020 |title=''Jack pine'' |work=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew }}</ref><ref>{{IPNI | id = 1116321-2 | taxon = Pinus divaricata}}</ref> }}
'''Jack pine''' ('''''Pinus banksiana'''''), also known as '''grey pine'''<ref name="NBHoA">{{cite book |author=New Brunswick House of Assembly |url=https://archive.org/details/reportsrelating00brungoog |title=Reports Relating to the Project of Constructing a Railway and a Line of Electro-magnetic Telegraph Through the Province of New Brunswick from Halifax to Quebec |publisher=J. Simpson |year=1847}}</ref> or '''scrub pine,'''<ref name="NBHoA" /><ref name="Silvics">{{Silvics|volume=1|genus=Pinus|species=banksiana|last=Burns|first=R.M.}}</ref> is a species of North American pine.
== Description == ''Pinus banksiana'' ranges from {{convert|9-22|m}} in height. Some jack pines are shrub-sized, due to poor growing conditions. Although it varies among populations, jack pine trees do not usually grow particularly straight, resulting in an irregular shape similar to that of pitch pine (''Pinus rigida''). This pine often forms pure stands on sandy or rocky soil. Many populations are adapted to stand-replacing fires, with the cones remaining closed for many years, until a forest fire kills the mature trees and opens the cones, reseeding the burnt ground. Other populations have not been shaped by regular stand-replacing fires and have reduced serotiny.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gauthier |first1=Sylvie |last2=Bergeron |first2=Yves |last3=Simon |first3=Jean-Pierre |date=1996 |title=Effects of Fire Regime on the Serotiny Level of Jack Pine |journal=Journal of Ecology |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=539–548 |doi=10.2307/2261476 |jstor=2261476 |bibcode=1996JEcol..84..539G |issn=0022-0477}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pelletier |first1=Emmanuelle |last2=de Lafontaine |first2=Guillaume |date=February 2023 |title=Jack pine of all trades: Deciphering intraspecific variability of a key adaptive trait at the rear edge of a widespread fire-embracing North American conifer |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=110 |issue=2 |article-number=e16111 |doi=10.1002/ajb2.16111 |pmid=36462149 |bibcode=2023AmJB..11016111P |issn=0002-9122|doi-access=free }}</ref> A population on the Maine coast is apparently not reliant on fire for reproduction,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Conkey |first1=Laura E. |last2=Keifer |first2=Mary Beth |last3=Lloyd |first3=Andrea H. |date=January 1995 |title=Disjunct jack pine ( Pinus banksiana Lamb.) structure and dynamics, Acadia National Park, Maine |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/11956860.1995.11682281 |journal=Écoscience |language=en |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=168–176 |doi=10.1080/11956860.1995.11682281 |bibcode=1995Ecosc...2..168C |issn=1195-6860|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and some stands have developed several age classes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barton |first1=Andrew M. |last2=Grenier |first2=Daniel J. |date=April 2008 |title=Dynamics of jack pine at the southern range boundary in downeast Maine |url=http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/X07-176 |journal=Canadian Journal of Forest Research |language=en |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=733–743 |doi=10.1139/X07-176 |bibcode=2008CaJFR..38..733B |issn=0045-5067|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Populations with lower serotiny are often found on soils that are in some way limiting to faster-growing competition, such as soils shallow to bedrock, shallow to water table, or very young soils.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chun |first1=Young Moon |last2=Choi |first2=Young D. |date=October 2012 |title=Structure, Species Composition, and Soil Characteristics in a Chronosequence of Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) Stands on the Southern Shore of Lake Michigan |url=https://bioone.org/journals/the-american-midland-naturalist/volume-168/issue-2/0003-0031-168.2.408/Structure-Species-Composition-and-Soil-Characteristics-in-a-Chronosequence-of/10.1674/0003-0031-168.2.408.full |journal=The American Midland Naturalist |volume=168 |issue=2 |pages=408–426 |doi=10.1674/0003-0031-168.2.408 |issn=0003-0031|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Its leaves are needle-shaped, evergreen, in fascicles of two, needle-like, straight or slightly twisted, stiff, sharp-pointed, light yellowish-green, spread apart; edges toothed and {{convert|2-4|cm|frac=4|abbr=on}} long. The bundle-sheath is persistent. The buds are blunt pointed, up to 15 mm long, reddish-brown, and resinous. On vigorous shoots, there is more than one cyclic component. The bark is thin, reddish-brown to gray in color in juvenile stages. As the tree matures it becomes dark brown and flaky. The wood is moderately hard and heavy, weak, light brown colour. The seed cones vary in shape, being rectangular to oval, cone shaped, straight or curved inward.<ref name="Moore2008">{{cite book |first1= Gerry |last1=Moore |first2=Bruce |last2=Kershner |first3=Craig |last3=Tufts |first4=Daniel |last4=Mathews |first5=Gil |last5=Nelson |author5-link=Gil Nelson |first6=Richard |last6=Spellenberg |first7=John W. |last7=Thieret |first8=Terry |last8=Purinton |first9=Andrew |last9=Block |title=National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America |publisher=Sterling |location=New York |year=2008 |page=68 |isbn=978-1-4027-3875-3}}</ref> The cones are {{convert|3-5|cm|frac=4|abbr=on}} long, the scales with a small, fragile prickle that usually wears off before maturity, leaving the cones smooth.
Unusually for a pine, the cones normally point forward along the branch, sometimes curling around it. That is an easy way to tell it apart from the similar lodgepole pine in more western areas of North America. The cones on many mature trees are serotinous. They open when exposed to intense heat, greater than or equal to {{convert|50|C|F}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cameron |first=H. |date=1953 |title=Melting Point of the Bonding Material in Lodgepole Pine and Jack Pine Cones |journal=Silviculture Leaflet |issue=86}}</ref>
== Taxonomy == In the far west of its range, ''P. banksiana'' hybridizes readily with the closely related lodgepole pine (''P. contorta'').
The species epithet ''banksiana'' is after the English botanist Sir Joseph Banks.<ref name="anatomy">{{cite web |title=Pinus banksiana Lamb. |url=http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/pdf_files/pinusbankmet.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308131047/http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/TechSheets/SoftwoodNA/pdf_files/pinusbankmet.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-08 |access-date=2010-12-27 |publisher=Center for Wood Anatomy Research, Forest Products Library, United States Forest Service}}</ref>
== Distribution and habitat == Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and the north-central and northeast of the United States from Minnesota to Maine, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana and northwest Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grimm |first=William Carey |title=The Book Of Trees |date=1962 |publisher=The Stackpole Company |location=Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |page=55 |language=en}}</ref>
== Ecology == [[File:Pinus banksiana forest.jpg|thumb|''P. banksiana'' forest with ''Vaccinium'' groundcover in Neil's Harbour, Nova Scotia]]
Kirtland's warbler (''Setophaga kirtlandii''), a formerly endangered bird, depends on pure stands of young jack pine in a very limited area in the north of the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan for breeding. Most known nesting areas are limited to Crawford, Oscoda, and Ogemaw counties.<ref>{{Cite web|title=USFWS: Managing the forest for the Kirtland's warbler|url=https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/birds/kirtland/kiwamgmt.html|access-date=2021-10-05|website=www.fws.gov}}</ref> Mature jack pine forests are usually open and blueberries are often abundant in the understory.
Young jack pines are an alternate host for sweet fern blister rust (''Cronartium comptoniae''). Infected sweet ferns (''Comptonia peregrina'') release powdery orange spores in the summer and nearby trees become infected in the fall. Diseased trees show vertical orange cankers on the trunk and galls on the lower branches. The disease does not tend to affect older trees.<ref name="eclectic">Blouin, Glen. ''An Eclectic Guide to Trees: east of the rockies''. 2001. Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario. pp 152-159.</ref>
Jack pines are also susceptible to scleroderris canker (''Gremmeniella abietina''). This disease manifests by yellowing at the base of the needles. Prolonged exposure may lead to eventual death of the tree.<ref name="eclectic" />
Insects that attack jack pine stands include the white pine weevil (''Pissodes strobi''), Swaine jack pine sawfly (''Neodiprion swainei''), and jack pine budworm (''Choristoneura pinus'').<ref name="eclectic" />
Fossil evidence shows the jack pine survived the glacial period in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains.<ref>Trees of Canada; Author John Laird Farrar</ref>
== Uses == Like other species of pine, ''Pinus banksiana'' has use as timber, although its wood tends to be knotty and not highly resistant to decay. Products include pulpwood, fuel, decking, and utility poles.<ref name=anatomy />
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Jackpine.jpg|Foliage File:Pinus banksiana closed cones.jpg|Closed, mature cones File:Cones2.jpg|Pollen cones File:Pinus banksiana bark.jpg|Bark File:The Jack Pine, by Tom Thomson.jpg|''The Jack Pine'' (1917) by Tom Thomson, painted in Algonquin Park, Ontario. File:Jack Pine 'Schoodic'.jpg|Creeping cultivar of Jack Pine called 'Schoodic'. </gallery>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Commons category inline|italic=on}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q806838}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Pinus Category:Pinus taxa by common names Category:Flora of Eastern Canada Category:Flora of the Northeastern United States Category:Flora of Alberta Category:Flora of Illinois Category:Flora of Indiana Category:Flora of Maine Category:Flora of Manitoba Category:Flora of Massachusetts Category:Flora of Michigan Category:Flora of Minnesota Category:Flora of New Hampshire Category:Flora of New York (state) Category:Flora of North Dakota Category:Flora of the Northwest Territories Category:Flora of Nunavut Category:Flora of Saskatchewan Category:Flora of Vermont Category:Flora of Wisconsin Category:Trees of Northern America Category:Taxa named by Aylmer Bourke Lambert