One advantage to having a truck for an office, is to take a few minutes in the woods during lunch to engage in a bit of en plein air sketching. En plein air is a french term meaning “in the open air.” It refers to painting or sketching in the outdoors.

En plein air pen and ink of a lodgepole pine cone.

Here is some of our local lodgepole pine.

In California, lodgepole pine is a tree of high elevation.

They prefer growing near wet areas and around meadows.

This Oregon Junco summers in a high elevation lodgepole pine forest.

Lodgepole pine grows around this meadow with Magee Peak in the background. The very tall trees are Ponderosa pine and white fir.

It often grows in pure dense stands.

These are the male cones of the pine.

In some parts of its range, lodgepole pine produces serotinus cones. These cones stay closed until a fire triggers them to open. The seeds are released to begin the next generation.

Lodgepole pine cones are small, less than two inches in diameter.

It is a favored tree for making log homes.

Click on the images to enlarge them.