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| Bristlecone pine on Hart Prairie |
Today, on my ride with Ken, we rode up the segment of the Arizona Trail which runs parallel to the Snowbowl Road up to Hart Prairie, to around 9000 feet. We turned around to head back down in the middle of the beautiful meadow which overlooks Alfa Fia tank and the broad expanse of smaller mountains to the west. It's an incredible view.
Authoritatively, the bristlecone pine should not be found at this elevation. But they are here. Interspersed, at random, between the ponderosas and firs there are a few, all much taller and fuller than their kindred which grow at higher elevations and live for thousands of years, with which I'm more familiar. In fact, Ken and I were both so dubious of the tree's identity, that I took the picture which accompanies this post in order to use my very-favorite field guide when I got home to more accurately and confidently identify it.
Short, furry needles. Foxtail-like boughs. You can even see the bristles from which it derives its name, on the younger, smaller cone in the center of the photo. Definitely a bristlecone.
2 comments :
Interesting. I can't recall Bristlecones that low but many of the trees along that 9000' stretch of the AZ trail are Southwestern White Pine. 5 needle bracts and 5 to 7" cones.
rockman
Definitely bristlecone.
A ranger-led walk along this section of trail last year pointed out the bristlecone.
-dbflg-
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