Plant of the day is: Pinus radiata or Monterey pine

Plant of the day is: Pinus radiata or Monterey pine

So what is the most widely planted and forested pine in the world?  I would have ventured a few guesses but until today I wouldn't have actually known the answer.

See the ocean?

I came across these because I was looking re-pot some Nepenthes and wanted to use some orchid bark.  I was told it came from New Zealand so I got curious and looked it up.  Turns out, this plant has a fascinating story to tell.

Habit/Range:  First thing I noticed was that it is IUCN listed as endangered.  Wait, why is an endangered species being turned into bark for orchid planting?!  Turns out it is actually native to three very limited areas in Santa Cruz, Monterey Peninsula, and San Luis Obispo counties.  It is also located as possibly different varieties on the islands Guadalupe and Cedros.  These are basically central coast of California and a few patches in the Baja penninsula.

 Growing points for Pinus.  We call them candles.

Endangered:  Well humans have done their humanly things to an almost absurd degree on this tree.  On Guadalupe island, introduced feral goats all but eliminated the tree.  For the rest of the trees, a fungal pathogen was brought from the southeast states (Fusarium circinatum) and is destroying populations.  The fungus weakens trees, which attracts beetles which then further (vector) spread the disease to other nearby trees.  If this pathogen makes it to New Zealand/Australia/South America it could devastate production plantations.  We should really sit down, as a culture, and think about the costs of international travel and the circulation of goods on the biodiversity of the planet.  A LOT of harm has been done already.  There are several ecological tie ins to this tree ranging from monarch butterflies to orchids.  Be a shame to destroy all this stuff.

Description:  We've greatly engineered these tree for our forestry purposes.  The wild type is generally knotty, twisty, and typically poor for lumber production.  The massive (and I mean MASSIVE) plantations in NZ/AUS use very selected seedlings for very straight and knot free growth.  It is a fast growing tree and typically is not very large in the wild.  In production it can reach heights of up to 200 ft.  When grown in the open I think it has a really nice rounded shape.  It does not handle temperatures below about -15C.  The needles are generally found in bundles of 3 but sometimes 2 with a blunt tip.  The cones are kind of egg shaped.  The cones are (new botanical term!) serotinous and remain closed until a fire or high heat forces them open and seeds are loosed.

Questions:  I often wonder if wood like this would be billed as "sustainable."  The issue I have with all of this, and I'm not the only one, is that by planting these massive swaths of non native trees through areas previously occupied by native species....you just wrecked an entire ecosystem.  In fact, in Chile, Monterey pine is replacing Valdivian temperate rain forests.  Rain forests folks, temperate rain forests, some of the absolutely most majestic occurrences on the planet, cut down for cheap timber to make particle board for cheaply constructed furniture.  I hope for better foresight.

This?

Or this?