Ten Things I Like about Columbia, Part I: Pine Trees

By Joel Gillespie

 

 

I lived for twenty years in Greensboro, NC, a fine town indeed. And even though I thought (happily) that I would live out my days there, I never ceased to long for my South Carolina homeland.

One reason for the longing was the pine trees – the lack of them in Greensboro and the abundance of them in the Midlands. Sure, Greensboro has lots of Scotch pines and Virginia pines, but not REAL pines, not many of the pine-tree-trinity of long leaf pine, loblolly pine and short leaf pine so common in Columbia.

 

​The Columbia sky through all three of our common pines

 

I grew up living and playing in a Columbia neighborhood filled with pines of all three major types. Lying on the grass looking up I became used to seeing the blue of the sky framed by the green needles and and brown bark of pine trees high above. The view is pretty much deeply imprinted in my psyche. And the wind, the sound of wind, is different when it is blowing through the pines. I missed that.

And pine tree bark – I think it’s beautiful!

 

​Broad headed skink in loblolly pine bark crevasse

 

As fall fades into winter and the leaves of the various deciduous trees fall to the ground, I like having the green of pine trees above me. Hawks like to alight high in pine trees, and in the winter it is easier to see them with the other trees being leafless. The other day in Forest Hills I watched a red tail hawk settle onto the highest limb of a pine in the yard next door, and then listened to him screech for maybe half an hour. I don’t know what all the fuss was about, and oddly the crows weren’t even bothering him.

If we could go back in time 300 years, it would have been long leaf pine dominating the sand hills of the midlands. Long leaf was the predominate plant species of the sand hills ecosystem, adapted to the xeric conditions of the porous sandy soil and the high frequency of lighting caused brush fires. Earlier in our state’s history long leaf pines were in great demand for their superb wood and their “pitch.” There are very few remaining bits of mature long leaf pine forest, though thankfully there are many efforts to restore them.

We had a long leaf pine growing (it appeared) on the little brick wall separating our house from our neighbors, the Suggs. Up the hill by the church were several more, many of which are still there today.

One skill we learned as kids was shimmying up pine tree trunks. In shorts this was pretty tough on the thighs, but in jeans it was not too bad. Some kids could shimmy right up to a high first limb. It was pretty stupid I suppose, given the chances of falling, but fun.

Pines provided other sources of fun, and pain. Pine cones were a staple in games of war, especially the green ones. Green long leaf cones were pretty much outlawed as none of us wanted to get hit by one of those.

 

​Green long leaf pine cone

 

Speaking of pine cones there was one thing about pine trees I didn’t like and that was having to pick up the pine cones before mowing the yard. Ugh! Even when I was little, when my brothers or dad did the mowing, I got the task of picking up the cones, filling one Piggly-Wiggly paper bag after another. I still don’t like picking up pine cones.

But I must say, my dog loved them.

 

​Clancey daring me to steal his (loblolly) pine cone

 

And then there was raking. Oh my goodness did our pines make a lot of straw!

There were a few quite climbable pines up in the woods, particularly this one pair growing very close together. One of the pair had very low limbs so we could start up that one and then cross over to the other one higher up. It was a big thrill to get to the tippity top of a pine and see Fort Jackson in the distance. I don’t know why that was so thrilling, but it was.

One always-fun pine tree related activity was kicking the football up into the pine trees at the time of year when pine seed “helicopters” were beginning to fall. One well placed kick would send hundreds of the little spinning seeds floating down, and the challenge was to catch as many as possible.

We had a couple of dozen pines in our yard. mostly loblolly. One year when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old one of pines appeared out of the blue to have all but died. It was confirmed that pine borers were the culprit. Weeks went by and several other of our pines started to show signs of borer infestation. My parents seemed a bit indifferent but I was alarmed. Kids get very attached to their trees. Somehow I talked my dad into getting diazinon (or was it malathion?) and a sprayer. I then proceeded to spray every pine on the property, soaking the bark a third of the height up each pine. I remember feeling sick afterward, but I saved the pines.

 

Pine and dogwood in autumn, my old front yard

 

Though long leaf pines dominated the higher drier parts of the sand hills, loblollies flourished in the rich soils of the creek bottoms. My grandmother lived on Macgregor Drive east of Beltline, and between Macgregor and Trenholm was a creek and a small flood plain. The soil in that creek bottom was amazing, and the pines were enormous, perhaps the largest stand of loblollies in Columbia. I never ceased to be awed by them as a kid.

One of the subsequent owners cut down many of her huge pines. I think there is an irrational fear of pine trees falling on houses. Those pines were a hundred or more years old. Seems they should have been left alone.

Our southern pines do not do particularly well laden down by ice in freezing rain storms. The limbs are just not adapted for load bearing. I remember one particularly bad freezing rain event when I was in high school. When the pine limbs snapped it sounded like a gun shot. All night long it would be “pop, pop, pop,” with the occasional groaning of a blown transformer mixed in. One year my friend Bob Moore and I decided to be stupid. In the midst of a really bad freezing rain storm we went outside and stood under the pine trees in my front yard. When we heard the loud “pop” of a breaking limb we would take off for a clear area. Thankfully we ran faster than the limbs fell.

OK, so yes, the fear of falling pine limbs landing on a house is not irrational.

What we now think of as the traditional southern garden of azaleas, camellias, and dogwoods depends on the pine trees above to filter the harsh sunlight. of summer Not only is the mottled light beautiful in its own right but it keeps these under-story plants from being scorched. Take away the pines and the dogwoods get too much sun. Take away the dogwoods and the azaleas and camellias get too much sun.

 

​Nanny’s back yard 1950’s – dogwoods and azaleas under pines

 

I missed my pine trees, and now I have them back. Columbia, heat, and pine trees – they all go together!

Next stop: Ten Things I Like About Columbia, Part II: Street Names

 

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