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Great pics, Basic. I went through roughly the same arc as you, in terms of my appreciation of our native pines. Now, I like red probably every bit as much as white. I especially like an older stand with red pine in it. The big pinkish-purpleish trunks really do it for me, even if the foliage is not so luxuriant-looking as that of strobus. Along the Lake Michigan shoreline counties, one can find stands with red pine mixed in with white pine, hemlock, beech, sugar maple, yellow birch, and a few more I'm forgetting.....a most interesting mix.

+oM

Thanks, +oM. I agree, the bark is quite nice, with the plate-like habit only reinforcing the nice color.

I've lived in Wisconsin most of my adult life and have not yet explored the east coast. Sure, I've read about the nice beech stands in the eastern part of the state, but have not seen them up close. That needs to be remedied!

Ditto on the nice Pics. For me it is Pinus Rigida, I love the contorted twisted branching and large plated bark.Living near the Pine Barrens of Nj probably influenced this being it is predominantly a pitch pine forest .

Basic, I know of many a good haunt over on our east coast. Let me know if you need any recommendations!

+oM

After spending time living in pine habitats, I also developed an appreciation of them. Not just eastern white pine, but Virginia, Table Mnt and pitch pines (which do & look much better on fertile lawns than their usual poor-soil habitats). On visits far southward there were also the loblolly, longleaf, shortleaf, etc forests that impressed.

For that matter, I've become quite enamored of Pinus elliota-slash pine-as seen in S. Florida. Some truly beautiful stands can still be seen down there. If you squint your eyes just right, you can almost imagine you're somewhere in N. Wisconsin-in a pine barrens type of community....until you refocus on all the saw palmetto, etc. on the ground layer! We don't have a lot of palmetto up here!

Also true-one needs to get on down there to see this if at all interested; Land developers are apparently not going to leave any of it standing. Or else, Malaleuca has moved into the stands, pretty much ruining the effect, as well as the long-term viability of the stand, given that invasive species ability to cause fires to race right up into the crowns of the pine trees.

+oM