The Monterey Pine

I'm strangely obsessed with the Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) and I don't know why. I think it's the shape of them. Or, rather, the shapes the weather forms them into. They're very sculptural and, to my eye, very pleasing.

The tree originally came to these shores from coastal California and Mexico and I understand that it's the most widely planted pine in the world, valued for rapid growth and desirable lumber and pulp qualities. You see them everywhere in Cornwall where I grew up. In fact, there was a tall sculptural one in the back garden of one of my childhood homes (the one on the right). Maybe that's where my love of them was born.

There's something vaguely Japanese about them I think. And the shapes they form also seem to mirror some of the oddly shaped trees and rocks in Roger Dean's paintings (see here). Dean was very much one of my influences and favourite artists when I was a teenager - and he was influenced by Japanese art. Many of his paintings have trees that look like they might be Monterey pines.

All I know is that I seem to have taken photographs of hundreds of them.    

The tree has remarkable roots that will reach downward as far as physically permitted by subterranean conditions. Roots have been discovered up to 12m (39ft) long. This means that they hog water from their surroundings. Efforts to remove large quantities of the tree in areas of South Africa have resulted in significant increases in accessible water. 

But it's popular as a Bonsai tree - which just adds to my impressions of their 'Japanese'-ness.

Whatever the reasons, I absolutely love them.