Jack Pine

Description:

Small pine with often twisted trunk or branches. Two needles to the bundle and small cones that usually open as a response to heat.

Habitat:

Adapted for the dry northern plains of Canada, but these were growing in central Iowa and were probably planted, perhaps as a windbreak. Though they're now in an area managed as a wildlife preserve they apparently don't often occur naturally in Iowa.

Notes:

Found along the "Jack Pine trail" at the Chichaqua bottomlands natural area. Central Iowa.