Radiata/Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) Photo By dalvenjah on Flickr – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6078804

Dear Readers, today’s ‘weed’ is a story of how a tree originally from North America ended up, via New Zealand and the Netherlands, in some East Finchley window frames. For, in another guise, Radiata Pine is also known as Accoya, a ubiquitous wood which, when treated, probably forms most of the wooden frames used across the UK.

First things first. Radiata Pine (also known as Monterey Pine) comes originally from the Central Coast of California, and from two islands off of Baja California in Mexico – Guadalupe and Cedros Islands. In one of those strange connections that seem to occur more and more as I get older, I have actually been to Guadalupe Island – the place is littered with the bleaching skeletons and skulls of goats. The goats were introduced years ago by settlers, but as the water supply is extremely limited, the settlers soon left, leaving the goats to their own devices. Being hardy and resourceful animals, the goats sustained themselves by nibbling all the baby Radiata Pines until they were stumps. Eventually, someone realised that this particular subspecies of tree had been almost extincted (new verb) by the goats, and so the poor old goats were culled. The trees are now regenerating, which is just as well, because although the Radiata Pine is the most widely-grown timber tree in the world, as a wild tree it has become vanishingly rare across its original range.

Goat Skull from Guadalupe Island

Now, Radiata Pine plantations are found all over Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, Argentina and a host of other countries. The tree grown for timber is very different from the wild tree – it has long, straight trunks, which don’t divide as the tree grows (see the wild specimen in the photo above). New Zealand has become a major source of wood for Accoya production – the timber is transported by sea to the Netherlands, where it’s transformed by a process called acetylation. This makes it as tough and durable as the hardwoods that it’s increasingly replacing, and my window frames have a 50 year guarantee, which should, as my Dad used to say, ‘see me out’. The wood has all sorts of environmental accreditations, including from the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). Am I completely convinced? Of course not. In many places, native forests have been cut down to grow Radiata Pine, and a plantation is no substitute for a long-established, diverse forest. Plus there’s the environmental cost of transporting timber from New Zealand to Europe – I’m sure it’s by sea, of course, but marine traffic is also implicated in climate change and environmental damage.  It seems as if the choices that we have to make these days are all fraught with ethical problems, and we have to do the best we can.

Radiata Pine plantation in Australia (Photo By Wikipedian, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53692872)

In ‘the wild’, Radiata Pine forms a diverse community with Monterey Cypress, another fine conifer. The gaps between the trees harbour some extremely rare plants, such as Hickman’s Potentilla, known from only two Radiata Pine sites in California.

Hickman’s Potentilla (Potentilla hickmanii) Photo by By John Game, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56210367

The orchid Plantathera yadonii grows only in Radiata Pine forests in California.

Platanthera yadonii (Photo by By Irene – https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/146515368, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=114428450)

A remnant Radiata Pine forest in California (Monarch Grove) is an important over-wintering site for Monarch Butterflies on their way south, with approximately 16,000 butterflies hibernating there in the winter of 2022-23.

At Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, CA near Monterey (Photo by By Kenneth Lu – https://www.flickr.com/photos/toasty/12934272853/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152229127)

Writing this blog has made me think about the trip that I made to Monterey to watch whales, and also my trip around Baja California and the Sea of Cortez. Again, as I get older I think more and more about experiences, places I’ve been, people who’ve touched my heart and made me think. How very lucky I’ve been to see some of the things I’ve seen, and to have done that in the company of such precious human beings.

Elephant seal pups (Baja California)

Blue whale at sunset, Sea of Cortez

Grey Whale spyhopping in St Ignacio lagoon, Mexico

Grey Whale calf coming for a look in San Ignacio lagoon, Mexico