
We here at the Antisocial Network just happen to have a degreed forester (B. S., University of Arizona) on staff (Nicole has, as do so many Demand Media drones, an Associates Degree in.... ta-da! Journalism), who directed us to a number of dichotomous keys for identification of different species of pines. Here's a key that's fairly general as opposed to the very specific one Nicole found for a biology lab at "University of Berkeley" (we think she meant University of California at Berkeley). In any case, Nicole's version of a dichotomous key (such as it is) is replete with problems. She starts out with
"Measure the length of the needles of the pine tree."Well, no, dichotomous keys for the identification of pines generally begin with, "Count the number of needles in the bundle." Her second step is "Smell the tree."Again, no: a general key (instead of one written for a Botany 101 class at one specific west-coast university) next asks about needle length or instructs you to inspect the cones. And then Nicole starts getting into specific trees. If you use Nicole's key, you'll learn that your tree "could be" any of several species, though she never actually says it is a named species; except for telling you it's one of some rather unusual pines like Hartweg's pine (native to Central America), the bishop pine (almost extinct, restricted to California's Channel Islands), or the knobcone pine (only known from the Pacific coast). Nothing about lodgepole, sugar, or loblolly pines, for instance; and nothing about the vanilla-scented bark of the ponderosa. |
¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was ehow.com/how_7500558_identify-types-pine-trees.html
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