Leaf:  Needle-like, arranged in bundles of 5, flexible, bluish-green, to 5 inches long. 

Flower:  Separate male and female flowers on same tree; staminate crowded into several yellow spikes up to 1/3 inch long; pistillate crowded into fewer groups, pink to purple. 

Fruit:  Cones cylindric, slender, drooping, 4 to 8 inches long, each scale without prickles; seeds narrowly oblong, up to 1/4 inch long, with a wing up to 3/4 inch long.

Twig:  Slender, orange-brown, smooth or slightly hairy.   

Bark:  Gray to brown; smooth becoming rough; thick and deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.

Form:  Tall tree, well over 100 feet tall in some regions of the United States; trunk diameter sometimes in excess of 3 feet, crown pyramidal.

Discussion

Eastern white pine is the largest conifer and formerly the most valuable tree of the Northeast.  The moderately soft, even-textured, and straight-grained wood has many excellent qualities and is easily worked.  Until the supply began to run short, it was the preferred wood for all construction purposes.  It went into houses and barns, covered bridges, furniture, burial boxes, trim, pulpwood, and dozens of other items, including matches.  Younger trees and plantations have replaced the once seemingly inexhaustible lumber supply of virgin forests. 

The tall straight trunks were prized for ship masts in the colonial period.  The seeds were introduced in England (where it is called Weymouth Pine) from Maine in 1605 by Captain George Weymouth of the British Navy.  Before the American Revolution, choice pines in the New England forest were blazed with the King's Broad Arrow, as a sign that they were reserved for use as ships' masts by the Royal Navy; but blazed or not, the big pines were appropriated by rebellious colonists for their own use. 

Pines also yield turpentine, tar, pitch, and a medical oil.

Distinguishing Characteristics 

The soft; blue-green needles in clusters of 5 readily distinguish the white pine. 

Distribution

Newfoundland across to Manitoba, south to Iowa, northern Illinois, and in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. 

Images                           

Click each small picture to see a larger image.                      

December, 2002 AG	March, 2003	December, 2002  AG	March, 2003
March, 2003	December, 2002, AG	March, 2003

Location

N 39.27957°    W -89.89197°
Northeast corner of Carlinville High School grounds, 829 West Main Street, Carlinville, Macoupin County, IL.

Copyright  

Photos © 2002 Ashley Grounds, Carlinville High School, linke@carlinvilleschools.net

References    

William C. Grimm, Familiar Trees of America, 1967, Harper & Row.

H. E. Jaques, How to Know The Trees, 1946, Wm. C. Brown Company.

Elbert L. Little, Field Guide to Trees:  Eastern Region, 1980, Alfred A. Knopf. 

Click here to return to the plant list for Carlinville High School