Jack Pine Pinus Banksiana ILLINOIS RANGE

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Jack pine Pinus banksiana Kingdom: Plantae FEATURES Division: Pinophyta Jack pine is also known as gray pine or scrub pine. Class: Coniferopsida This perennial evergreen is a small to medium tree Order: Coniferales of 15 to 40 feet in height. Its needlelike leaves are simple and entire. These very short (one to one and Family: Pinaceae one-half inches long), curved, dark green leaves are ILLINOIS STATUS arranged in pairs. The bark is red-brown, rough and scaly. Twigs are slender and dark brown. The female endangered, native reproductive structures develop in yellow spikes The Jack pine is endangered in Illinois. It was which may be one-half inch long. Male reproductive originally found in the state only on sand ridges structures are borne in small, purple clusters. The bordering Lake Michigan and on inland sandstone cones that are produced curve or bulge on one side. outcrops. Its populations have been reduced by land Each cone is approximately one and one-half to two development and lake shore erosion to a few trees and one-half inches long. The very tiny seeds within along the Lake Michigan shore. The species is the cones are triangular and winged. commonly planted throughout the state. BEHAVIORS Jack pine may be found in Cook, Jo Daviess, Kendall, Lake and Ogle counties. It grows in forest, sand prairie, on bluffs and on dunes. Cones mature in their second autumn. Pollen is distributed by the wind. Seeds are also dispersed by the wind. The wood of this tree is lightweight, soft and red-brown.

ILLINOIS RANGE

Woodland Habitats coniferous forests

Prairie and Edge Habitats edge; sand prairie