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CARD-CARRYING MINNESOTANS SHOULD KNOW A PINE FROM A SPRUCE
"This hole doglegs to the right, so aim at that pine tree," my golfing partner advised.
There wasn't a pine in sight. Up ahead I saw a spruce, but certainly no pine.
"You mean that Colorado blue spruce 300 ahead yards ahead on the left side of the fairway?" I asked.
"Whatever," he said, not even pausing to acknowledge his faux pas. "That's right where you want to be for best approach to the green."
As golf advice, it was good. But how many other folks do you suppose this low-handicapper has steered the wrong direction, horticulturally speaking?
It's a funny thing about "evergreens" - most of us are enchanted by pine and spruce trees and other needle-bearing members of the conifer family but when it comes to telling a pine from a spruce from a fir, many people don't have a clue.
Our enchantment with evergreens may stem from our association of evergreens with adventure or leisure outings spent "up north." Our northern conifer forests are one of the main topographical differences between the northern and southern halves of Minnesota. Let's face it - listening to the wind whistle through the needles of a thick stand of Norway pine is a far more memorable sound than listening to wind blow through an elm tree.
I recall the half-day drive north my family took one week every August when I was a young farm boy visually accustomed to cow pastures and corn fields.
"It won't be long now," my dad used to say, somewhere in the vicinity of Little Falls or Long Prairie. "It won't be long now and we'll start seeing the 'tree line.'" He was referring to that area of our state where the oaks, maples and other hardwoods of central Minnesota give way to the dark green pyramidal shapes of millions of spruce and red and white pine.
I'd sit forward in the back seat of our '52 Buick and, for the next 50 miles or so, strain my eyes for the first sighting of that magical wall of pine and spruce.
Today, we've planted so many pine and spruce between here and Brainerd that the distinct tree line I remember from my youth no longer exists. In fact, depending on which road you travel, one might conclude that the tree line starts just north of Chaska and just keeps getting thicker as you drive north.
For the record, conifers are trees that don't drop their leaves (yes, needles are leaves) in the winter. Trees that drop their leaves each fall, like maples, ash and oaks, are called deciduous.
It is my belief that, as a card-carrying Minnesotan, you should - at the very least - be able to tell the difference between a pine and a spruce. Next time you're on a golf course, or walking outdoors anywhere else, for that matter, why not impress your friends with several of these distinctions between our most popular Carver County conifers?
Red (Norway) pine (Pinus resinosa) is Minnesota's state tree. It has 5- to 6-inch long stiff needles, two to a cluster, that snap or break clean when bent.
White pine (Pinus strobus) has 2- to 4-inch long needles, five to a cluster, that are soft, fine and flexible.
Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) has 2-inch long twisted needles, two to a cluster, and orangish-tan bark.
Blue spruce (Picea pungens) has very sharp 1-inch needles, borne singly, that are rectangular in cross section. Needles can be green, bluish-green or blue.
White spruce (Picea glauca densata) is commonly known as Black Hills spruce. Needles, which are borne singly, are slightly shorter than blue spruce needles and not as sharp.
Other conifers common to this area include northern white cedar, eastern red cedar, Norway spruce, balsum fir, Douglas fir and eastern hemlock.
Now, if you want to really impress your friends, tell them about eastern larch (tamarack). This is a deciduous conifer - it drops its needles in the winter and grows a new batch each spring.
By the way, I sliced my drive and took a double bogey on that hole. I should have aimed at that pine tree.
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