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WINTER INJURY OF LODGEPOLE PINE FOLIAGE
Author(s) -
MacHattie L. B.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1477-8696
pISSN - 0043-1656
DOI - 10.1002/j.1477-8696.1963.tb05148.x
Subject(s) - hardiness (plants) , citation , forestry , library science , geography , history , horticulture , computer science , biology , cultivar
N the Rocky Mountain forest reserves of western Alberta horizontal streaks I are visible on a few mountain slopes almost every spring as a result of injury to lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) foliage the previous winter. This injury is called 'red belt'. It affects spruce (Picea glauca) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga nzenziesii) as well as lodgepole pine, but it is not so obvious on the first two species because their needles fal l off soon after being injured. Red belt may appear as a narrow horizontal stripe, or as a broad band on a mountainside, or it may (less commonly) affect extensive valley-bottom forests. This paper discusses a case of valley-bottom injury which occurred the winter of 1955-56 at a broadening of the Kananaskis river valley (50°53'N, II5"9'W). The reddish discoloration of the affected foliage was so pronounced it was quite noticeable from a distance of five miles. In the literature, red belt has been associated with Chinook winds, the injury usually being attributed to desiccation (Henson 1952, Boyce 1948). Any proportion of a tree's foliage up to IOO per cent may be killed. However, even when all the current foliage is killed the buds sometimes survive, in which case tufts of fresh green needles appear at the ends of the branches in early summer. A comparison of radial growth after red belting with that before indicates that growth is reduced in proportion to the fraction of foliage killed.