pines

There are some 126 species of pines in the world. In our kibbutz we have some 4 kinds.
One of them you can see in the picture above. It is an over 60 year old Turkish Pine (pinus brutia). I have lived in the "shadow" of this tree for over 16 years. But one morning in the end of May it was discovered that some roots disconnected and started to lift the ground. The tree already stood not straight for some years but now it stood more askew than usual.
We called the tree cutter/ pruner team and closed off the street.

The head of the crew came alone- all his workers being on holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. Since the pine was already at an angle leaning towards the street he just fell the tree in this direction and apart from a pomelo tree that suffered broken branches no damage was done. 

The main trunk was taken and we from the garden team were left to deal with the huge amount of branches and clear the street.

Some of the wood I took for our fire stove. Although not the best fire wood, it is good enough for starting the fire. 
My small son always loves to help with "wood tasks". His dream is to become a carpenter... well.... or a DJ :-)

The Turkish Pine was probably more than 16 meters high (52 feet) and weighted according to a rough guess 15 to 18 tons. 

The other 3 pines that can be found in our kibbutz are:

- Stone Pines (pinus pinea)- the one with the pine nuts
- Aleppo Pines (pinus halepensis)- very wide spread in our area
- Canary Island Pines (pinus canariensis)- with very long needles

Stone Pine

Aleppo Pine

Canary Island Pine

Pines in our area are very well adapted to the climate and can survive without problem the hot and dry summers, the many months without rain.

They do however have some attributions that are less wanted for us humans. Their needles decompose very slowly and a thick carpet of dry needles can amount under the tree- great food for wildfires. They also produce a highly flammable resin that helps to facilitate fires. In addition burning pine cones can fly through the air like small fire bombs and help to spread the fire.

Pines reproduce easily after fires, some species even depend on the fires.