Pine Forest-Ooty

The Pine Forest spans between the locales of Ooty and Thalakunda adding a scenic canvas to the valleys and the vast landscapes of the Nilgiris. A weekend excursion from Ooty to Thalakunda is one of the leisure activities to indulge in as the en route experience is sure to leave you spell bounded with jaw dropping sights.

The Pine Forest spans over a small downhill region and are arranged in a natural orderly fashion that is indeed spectacular to look at. Buses are available from the Ooty bus Stand to Thalakunda or alternatively you can get into a bus that travels to Mysore but do let the Bus Conductor know that you need to get down next to the Pine Forest area that falls en route to Mysore.

The Pine Forest features an evergreen and resinous collection of trees that grows between 3 to 80 meters tall while a majority of them tower between 15 and 45 meters tall. Of the many species of Pine Trees, the smallest ones are the Siberian Dwarf Pine and Potosi Pinyon whereas the tallest one is an 81.79-meter towering Pine trees species named Ponderosa Pine mostly found around the Rogue River in Southern Oregon amidst the Siskiyou National Forest.

As you enter the Pine Forest near Ooty, you will notice these towering poles of Pine Trees dressed with thick and scaly features while a few are thin and feature flaking barks. The branches imitate a fake swirl that produces a very tight spiral twist with a tapered effect that looks like a ring of branches arising from one point. This spiral twist of growing branches, cone scales and needles shaped leaves are arranged in typical ratios of the Fibonacci number system, strange but true whereas the infant spring shoots, referred to as ‘candles’ are seen covered in off white and brownish bud scales. Initially these bud scales point upward but later transform into green leaves and spreads outward from the bark of the Pine Trees. These Candle-like spring shoots assist foresters to evaluate the soil fertility and well-being of the Pine Forest trees.

The Pine Forest is long-lived with almost all trees arriving at hundred to even a thousand years old while a few even cross the thousand mark reaching the age of 4,000 as well.