bladderpod

This Tree Boasts

THE HEAVIEST CONES of any pine species, with some sources reporting specimens weighing a staggering 10 pounds and measuring 7-13 inches long. The cones have prominent talons on their “umbos,” the adorable name for the ominously pointed tip of the cone scales. Along with the name “big-cone pine,” the species is called the much more exciting “widowmaker,” presumably because of husbands felled by monster cones. Evidence of the trees’ grim reputation crops up in unexpected places. In the dry reference tome Flora of North America, a paragraph of botanical information is followed by this incongruous aphorism: “One who seeks its shade should wear a hardhat.” freeway. Around 5-7 million years ago, in Los Angeles County, the pressure instead uplifted massive blocks of ancient granite and even more ancient Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rock. This Precambrian rock is, at youngest, 544 million years old, which makes the bones of the San Gabriel Mountains older than animals with spines.

As the mountains rose, the wind and rain tried to beat them down, without success. As a result, large amounts of mineral earth in the Los Angeles basin was birthed from these mountains. Despite the erosion (around .5 mm a year above Los Angeles), the mountains remain a steep climb.