The Torrey pine tree is a rare species of pine tree restricted to just two regions in the United States : It grows only on an island off the California coast and in part of San Diego County . The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree produces a nut call a pinyon nut that is edible but gruelling . The Torrey pine has a thick and bushy treetop , according to " Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree of North America . " San Diego ’s Torrey Pines Golf Course is famous the world over not only for timbre of the course , but for the unique knockout of its layout and the Torrey pines that originate there .
Identification
The Torrey pine can develop to height of 100 feet , but the majority of trees will be between 40 and 60 base marvelous with a automobile trunk diameter from one to two feet . The needles develop in sheaf of five and reach lengths as long as 11 inch . The needle are a sinister spook of green and the color of the bark on a Torrey pine tree diagram is reddish brown . The bark contains recondite cranny and scales .
Geography
The Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees , Shrubs and Vines site tell no other pine tree species on the planet exists in a modest home ground than does the Torrey pine . One population of the tree , which may actually be a distinct race , grows on Santa Rosa Island . The other separate universe of Torrey pines exists in the coastal chaparral region north of La Jolla , California .
Roots
The Torrey pine typically will farm in a writhen fashion , because of its unvarying exposure to the malarkey and salt atomiser that come off the sea . Many of these trees develop from bouldery cliffs and outcropping . The tree has the power to put down a long taproot and detailed system of roots . The Blue Planet Biomes internet site states that a Torrey pine tree just 40 human foot mellow is subject of having a 200 - invertebrate foot - prospicient internet of roots and that even the small seedling will have a taproot in the reach of 24 inches long .
Cones and Pine Nuts
The chocolate - colored pine cones that the Torrey pine produces have thick scales that end in a trigon with a point . The cone are between four and six inches in length and take as farsighted as three year to get on fully . Inside the cone is an comestible nut that you adventure breaking your teeth upon if you attempt to chew on it . The nuts will accrue from the strobilus in the dusk season of the cone shape ’s third year but the cone can abide on a Torrey true pine for many years before eventually falling off .
Considerations
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website says only a few thousand Torrey pines now survive in the wilderness , with many of these in the boundaries of the Torrey Pines States Park N of San Diego . The Torrey pine tree makes a ripe shade Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree when work , growing much faster in a quick damp climate than it does in its coastal ecosystem . The tree diagram adapts easily to poor soil and withstands droughts . The female flower in a Torrey pine develop in the upper branches , while the male flush grow in the limbs lower down on the same tree .
