Willamette Valley ponderosa pine | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Gymnospermae |
Division: | Pinophyta |
Class: | Pinopsida |
Order: | Pinales |
Family: | Pinaceae |
Genus: | Pinus |
Species: |
P. ponderosa |
Population: | Willamette Valley ponderosa pine |
The Willamette Valley ponderosa pine is a population of the ponderosa pine ( Pinus ponderosa) native to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It is adapted for Western Oregon's wet winter and dry summer.[ citation needed]
The Willamette Valley ponderosa variant only grows on the valley floor, unlike the Douglas-fir, which grows on hillsides, and the wood is softer and easier to mill than the native hardwoods. [1] Because of this, when early settlers used wood from the trees to build homes and cleared land for agriculture, the population was "decimated". [1] Prior to restoration efforts, the pine survived only in scattered stands between Hillsboro and Cottage Grove. [1] The Lewis's woodpecker and the slender-billed nuthatch (a subspecies of the white-breasted nuthatch) nest in the tree and rely on it for food–their populations were reduced along with that of the pine. [1]