Jack Pines

Returning to Provincetown in 2026, the jack pines grabbed my attention again. Jack pines are a hardy type that like sandy soil near the sea. Outside Provincetown, as you move away from town and out into back woods that line the peninsula, mostly on government land, the jack pines are abundant and seem to have grown undisturbed for quite some time. The unusual forms they take and their preference for harsh climate seem related to the ancient bristlecone.

As the week I spent among them wore on, I began to notice that the trees had a peculiar sense of humor related to their unusual shapes which seemed constantly to play off one another. I concluded that there is a strong collective mind at work among the jack pines of the Cape. I named it the Hive Mind of the Jack Pine: