Here are the pictures of the largest Pitch Pine on this property, that I mentioned a few days ago. The tree is actually in our side woods, which runs from the back woods, all the way to the road, a distance of about 800 feet or so.
In picture #594a, I was standing in the back field, facing the woods when I took the picture. The tree is almost exactly in the center of the picture, in the background, because it's about 40 or 50 feet into the woods. The Pitch Pine on the right that appears taller is close, being on the edge of the woods. The subject tree has a trunk circumference of 65". As I say, it's the largest on the property.
All of the woods burned in 1976, 9 years before we moved here. The side woods has very little underbrush and few understory trees. It also contains many non-native trees such as Tuliptree, Dogwood, and Big-tooth Aspen, and many pioneer species such as Eastern Red Cedar and Wild Black Cherry.
The back woods on the other hand, is almost exclusively Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak, with a few other species of oak scattered around, most of them small. There is one Mountain Laurel bush and lots of Inkberry Holly. There is American Holly along the driveway next to the side woods, but none in the back woods. I don't know why. The side woods is very strange compared the back woods.
Anyway, I got off the subject a bit. Enjoy the photos of my relatively large Pitch Pine.
Tomorrow if it's not raining I will go meaure the trunk circumference of some of the street trees in Egg Harbor that I have shown you, and some large Pitch Pines. I also want to go to Batsto and measure tree trunk circumferences there. Many of the trees date back at least to the 1770s.
Barry