Pinus contorta Lodgepole Pine

Pinus contorta, Lodgepole Pine, is native to a wide area of North America from Alaska to Baja California and inland to the Black Hills of South Dakota. However It is most common in the Rocky and Cascade Mountains. In the Rocky Mountains, it rapidly colonises forest that have been destroyed by fire, forming dense, even-aged stands called 'dog hair' stands. In these natural stands, the cones remain closed, glued by resin, until the extreme heat of forest fires melts them open, liberating thousands of seeds which germinate in the wake of the fire. It was first introduced to Britain around 1850 and was mostly planted on poor heathland or moorland soils in upland regions of Britain in the second half of the 20th Century. It is often encountered with Sitka Spruce on the higher ground of conifer plantations in West Glamorgan. However, it is not an important timber tree in Britain and it is considered a failure in many situations. Like other Pine species it is susceptible to lots of pests and diseases, e.g. red band needle blight (Dothistroma septosporum). Large amounts of Lodgepole Pine were planted in the Lower Swansea Valley in the 1970s in order to remediate some of the contaminated wasteland that had been left there by smelting industries. In Britain, Lodgepole Pine cones open and release their seed in the absence of fire and it is commonly encountered as regenerating saplings in quarries and roadside habitats in the plantations of West Glamorgan.

Previously planted but now regenerating and naturalising as a neophyte in heathland and other places, mostly in the uplands.