May/June 2014 | 35
Every Tree
Tells a Story
Long Live the
Limber Pine
O
ne tough tree has developed outstanding
features in harsh conditions, living well
into the existence of several generations to
share its story.
Although the national champion limber
pine—typically a small to medium tree—isn't
Utah's only national champion tree, it has
retained the title for more than 40 years. It
stands tall within the Uinta National Forest.
The limber pine's unique characteristics
distinguish it among Utah's seven other national
champion trees, which all vary in species, size
and shape. The limber pine's thin, smooth bark,
for example, twists and turns around the trunk
as it reaches high in the sky, approaching a
height more than 20 feet taller than the average
tree of its species.
W. Crawford, T. Dietz and T.A. Walker
nominated Utah's national champion limber
pine for American Forests' National Register
of Big Trees in 1968. The tree measures 275
inches around, 62 feet high and 47 feet across.
Native to higher elevations in Utah and
the interior West, the limber pine grows slowly
as it thrives on dry, harsh sites; in fact, the
species inhabits some of the driest sites where
trees can grow. Although the limber pine does
not tolerate shade, a wider range of elevations
satisfy the tree more than any other tree species
in the central Rocky Mountains.
Because the limber pine can exceed 1,000
years in age, it takes several hundred years to
mature, most often rooted along exposed,
rocky mountainsides in dry, open environments;
rigidity depicted through nature.
But the tree's frequent, flexible branches
—even twigs as wide as ½-inch in diameter—
suggest otherwise. With every twist and bend
in the canopy, the trunk further distorts itself
to demonstrate the very limberness for the
tree's namesake.
