Piñon

“ A sinewy, thinly-branched species, as straight-backed as an Indian, it has little affinity for its noble congeners of the Sierra forests, but keeps to the dry and open ridges, nourished by clouds and by infrequent shallow snows. With it, but at lower levels to which the flexilis will never come, is found frequently the one-leaved piñon pine, the food-crop of the wild tribes. ”

“ Most of the pine nuts have a resinous flavor, but as a class they are so rich and sweet that this is not disagreeable. The nuts of the single-leaf pine and our common piñon, Pinus edulis, are delicious when eaten out of hand and both of these trees are hardy in this latitude, but they do not grow as rapidly here as they do upon the arid mountains and under the conditions of their native habitat. ”

“ Here for the first time appeared the piñon pine (P. Monophyllus) , which forms the principal part of the Indian’s diet; it was no beauty to look upon, a dwarfish tree, rendered shrub-like by being feathered down to the ground. The nut is ripe in early autumn, at which time the savages stow away their winter provision in dry ravines and pits. The fruit is about the size of a pistachio, with a decided flavor of turpentine, tolerably palatable, and at first laxative. The cones are thrown upon the fire, and when slightly burnt the nuts are easily extracted ”

“ The early frosts have opened the cones and the ground under each pinon tree is covered with brown nuts that are scarcely larger than beans. Squirrels, chipmunks and Indians engage in a lively contest for them but there are more than enough for all. They are stored away in baskets to be eaten later in the winter. Usually they are cracked one at a time with the teeth and eaten raw but sometimes they are ground, shell and all, into an oily butter and eaten with corn bread. Pinon nuts are highly prized but they cannot be depended upon regularly. Sometimes several years elapse between crops. ”

“ Then you climb up back and forth, winding round and round, until you reach the top of the mountain, which is as flat as the floor of a house, merely being here and there traversed by small valleys covered with piñon and cedar, and threaded by trails made not only by the feet of our people but by deer and other animals. ”

“ If the stream had been inclined for it, there was no lack of good company on its own borders. Birds nested in the willows, rabbits came to drink; one summer a bobcat made its lair up the bank opposite the brown birches, and often deer fed in the meadow. Then there was a promise of better things. In the spring of one year two old men came up into the canon of Piñon Pines. They had been miners and partners together for many years, [Pg 36] they had grown rich and grown poor, and had seen many hard places and strange times. ”

“ Of the twenty-four species of pine which grow along the Pacific Slope one-half furnish seeds that are esteemed by the Indians as food. When a Mexican Indian starts out on a long trip across the country and does not wish to burden himself with food he fills a small pouch with piñon nuts and can subsist on a small number of them for a remarkably long time. ”

“ The real struggle for existence, the real brain of the plant, is underground; above there is room for a rounded perfect growth. In Death Valley, reputed the very core of desolation, are nearly two hundred identified species.
Above the lower tree-line, which is also the snow-line, mapped out abruptly by the sun, one finds spreading growth of piñon, juniper, branched nearly to the ground, lilac and sage, and scattering white pines.
There is no special preponderance of self-fertilized or wind-fertilized plants, but everywhere the demand for and evidence of insect life. ”

“ He described them exactly as Mr. Walters had, and as I had found the pit in mound V, and described the position of the skeleton also as if sitting with the face to the east. We soon came to a walled ruin 6 m. × 6 m. or 20 ft. × 20 ft., the walls composed of sandstone,—a range of rubble blocks very much ruined,—a piñon having a diameter of 0.45 m.—18 in.—shooting up from the interior. 50 m.—165 ft.—further north a clearly defined estufa is seen, 4 m.—13 ft.—across, with stone walls 1 m.—3 ft. 3 in.—in width. The apron of the mesa is overgrown with fine pines. ”

“ In the Philippines it is generally called piña, the Spanish word for pine-cone, which has the same origin as our name pine-apple. Piña is also the name of a cloth of great strength and durability, made by the natives of the Philippines, from the fibres of its leaves. The Malays, on the contrary, seldom or never make any such use of it, though it grows so abundantly in many places that any quantity of its leaves could be obtained for the simple trouble of gathering them. ”

“ When the pimento is out of season, he seeks other food; the berries of the sweetwood, the larger ones of the breadnut, and burn-wood, of the bastard cedar, and the fig, and the little ruddy 300clusters of the fiddle-wood, attract him. He feeds early in the morning, and late in the afternoon: large numbers resort to a single tree, (though not strictly gregarious,) and when this is observed, the sportsman, by going thither before dawn, and lying in wait, may shoot them one by one, as they arrive. ”

“ The nut-pine, Pinus edulis, scattered along the upper slopes and roofs of the cañon buildings, is the principal tree of the strange Dwarf Cocanini Forest. It is a picturesque stub of a pine about twenty-five feet high, usually-with dead, lichened limbs thrust through its rounded head, and grows on crags and fissured rock tables, braving heat and frost, snow and drought, and continues patiently, faithfully fruitful for centuries. Indians and insects and almost every desert bird and beast come to it to be fed. ”

“ Whenever they construct weirs to catch fish, they take care to offer fish to the water-serpent of the river; and when they are away from home and are making pinole, that is, toasted maize-meal, they drop the first of the pinole into the water as an offering to the serpents, who would otherwise try to seize them and chase them back to their own land. ”

“ Pinyons are among the commonest and most widespread trees of the middle elevations throughout the Southwest. The Mexican pinyon, which is the species growing abundantly in the Tanque Verde-Rincon upland, may be recognized by the fact that its foliage is in clusters of three needles to the bundle. Its cones require nearly 2 years to mature and contain hard-shelled seeds or nuts which are a source of food for many birds and mammals. ”

“ From tree-ferns, nestling in the branches, tiny heads peeped out, and little feathered creatures chirruped a welcome. A civet-cat was lazily stroking its face with one paw. Something large and hairy stirred on a nest of dried grass, and sleepily a full-grown packda stretched himself and gazed at Piang. The python approached it, and a hairy paw was extended; his snakeship coiled up beside the ape, and the mina-bird flew to the ape’s shoulder. ”

“ Secondarily, the rock provides nesting sites for more mice.
Stands of mixed shrubs, lacking a pinyon-juniper canopy, do not support P. truei. Its absence was noteworthy on Navajo Hill and on the northern end of Wetherill Mesa where only P. maniculatus lived among the mixed shrubs and grassland. On the Mesa Verde, pinyon and juniper trees must be present in order for P. truei to [496] live in an area; and, these trees must be alive. Dead pinyons and junipers still stand in the burned part of Morfield Ridge, but no P. truei were found there. ”

“ No. 247, P. maniculatus, adult. This male was followed to a large nest situated at the base of a stump and under a juniper log lying beside the stump, five feet from station I2c. This large nest was built on the ground and was constructed of grasses (Poa fendleriana, Stipa comata, and Koeleria cristata) , and contained a few leaves of Gambel oak. It was the largest nest found. Chewed pinyon nuts were in the nest. (Fig. 15) .
No. 276, P. maniculatus, juvenile. This male ran into a small hole at the base of a dead juniper tree 40 feet north of station O2c. ”

“ To the Squirrels they are more than the staff of life; they are meat and potatoes, bread and honey, pork and beans, bread and cake, sugar and chocolate, the sum of comfort, and the promise of continuing joy. But the pinyon does not bear every year; there are off years, as with other trees, and the Squirrels might be in a bad way if they had no other supply of food to lay up for the winter. ”

“ An ancient writer asserts that the Pinna is attended by a crab, that finds a habitation in its shell, and repays the favour by giving notice, by a gentle nip, when a fish comes within reach; the Pinna opens the valves of the shell, and secures the prey, which serves for the food of both. ”

“ The pepino is an egg-shaped fruit, and smells like a cucumber. Here are several varieties, and when ripe they have a sweet but peculiar taste, between the raw vegetable and fruit: they are considered unwholesome, and often called mata serranos, mountaineer killers; because these people when they come down to the coast eat large quantities of them, on account, perhaps, of their cheapness: they bring on intermittent fevers, dysentery, &c. The piña, pine-apple, is not cultivated in Lima, but brought from the neighbouring valleys, where the climate is hotter. ”

“ In Mesa Verde P. truei and P. maniculatus occur together only at the fringes of the pinyon-juniper woodland, where ecotonal areas provide less than optimum habitats for both species. Almost all individuals of P. truei occur only in pinyon-juniper woodland, whereas P. maniculatus occurs only in more open habitats, such as grassy meadows and stands of sagebrush.
Pinyon mice were abundant in a variety of associations within the pinyon-juniper woodland. The highest population densities were in pinyon-juniper woodland having an understory of mixed shrubs. ”

“ P. truei may be restricted to the pinyon-juniper woodland because of its need for more mesic conditions. Still, Mesa Verde is semi-arid and there are few permanent sources of water available for animals. The primary source of moisture for rodents must be their food. Analysis of the percentages of moisture contained in the three most common plants in the trapping grid showed that P. truei could obtain the required moisture by eating about ten grams of these plants daily; individuals of P. maniculatus would need to eat less in order to satisfy their water needs. ”

“ Canopy vegetation is pinyon-juniper forest. A dense understory was made up of Amelanchier utahensis (serviceberry) , Cercocarpos montanus (mountain [430] mahogany) , Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush) , and Quercus gambelii (Gambel oak) . The ground cover consisted of small clumps of Poa fendleriana (muttongrass) , and Koeleria cristata (Junegrass) , intermingled with growths of one or more of the following:
Seeds of Cercocarpos montanus covered the ground under the bushes in much of the trapping area, and large numbers of juniper berries were on the ground beneath the trees. ”

“ However, this is not the only factor, as is shown by the presence of P. maniculatus but lack of P. truei in a juniper-pinyon association with an understory of bitterbrush. This habitat was seemingly too arid for P. truei.
Factors Affecting Population Densities
The production of young, and success in rearing them, is essential to continuity of any population. P. maniculatus is favored in this respect, because the females produce more young and wean them sooner than do females of P. truei. ”

“ They seldom come ashore except in the breeding season, and then they nestle together, three or four in one hole, which they dig in the downs as deep as those of rabbits, and the ground is so full of them, that one is liable almost at every step to sink into them up to the knees. They feed entirely on fish, yet their flesh has not that rank fishy taste which is so common in sea-fowl, but is extraordinarily well tasted. Penguin, the name of this bird, is not derived from the Latin pinguedo, fatness, as the Dutch author of this voyage would have it, and therefore spells the word pinguin. ”

“ Pine-nuts,3148 with the resin in them, are slightly bruised, and then boiled down in water to one-half, the proportion of water being one sextarius to each nut. This decoction, taken in doses of two cyathi, is used for the cure of spitting of blood. The bark of the tree, boiled in wine, is given for griping pains in the bowels. The kernels of the pine-nut allay thirst, and assuage acridities and gnawing pains in the stomach; they tend also to neutralize vicious humours in that region, recruit the strength, and are salutary to the kidneys and the bladder. ”

“ Oviedo, in H. of the (Western) Indies, fills 21⁄2 folio pages with an enthusiastic description of the pine-apple as first found in Hispaniola, and of the reason why it got this name (pina in Spanish, pigna in Ramusio's Italian, from which we quote) . We extract a few fragments.
1535.—"There are in this iland of Spagnuolo certain thistles, each of which bears a Pigna, and this is one of the most beautiful fruits that I have seen.... It has all these qualities in combination, viz. beauty of aspect, fragrance of colour, and exquisite flavour. ”

“ But the charm of these "pinnies," as the children called them, was that they would never tear, get soiled, or wear out, but always re- main as white and smooth and new as when first made, for they were woven of fairy flax. Another fine thing was that whoever wore one would grow gentle and good, for the friendly little weavers and spinners had put so much love and good-will into their work that it got into the pinafores and would never come out, but shone in the golden border, and acted like a charm on the childish hearts the aprons covered. ”