Organic Forest Plants & More

Eastern White Pine

Trees and Shrubs

Zones

: 3 - 8

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Tree

Mature Size: Height: 150 ft. Diameter: 4 ft.

Flowers: Late Spring

Fruit: Summer-Fall

Common alternate names for Eastern White Pine:

Scientific name for Eastern White Pine: Pinus strobus L.

Planting Information: 

Eastern white pine grows on a variety of soils ranging from light, sandy to heavy textured soils. Requires sun to light shade; fertile, moist, well drained soil.

Seedlings of white pine are grown in nursery beds for field planting. They may either be left in the nursery for 2 to 3 years and directly planted into the field, or they may be transplanted after the second year and left in a transplant bed for 1 or 2 years before field plantings. This will produce a seedling approximately 12 to 16 inches in height with 1/4 to 1/2 inch caliper.

Colors: Foilage: evergreen, bluish green. Fruit: red.

Edible - food uses of Eastern White Pine: NA

Healing medicinal qualities of Eastern White Pine: NA

Other uses for Eastern White Pine:

Timber: The wood of white pine is light, durable, and easy to work. It is good lumber for toys, boxes, cabinet work, and similar items.

Christmas tree and ornamental: White pine is used occasionally in Christmas tree plantations and as ornamental planting in landscaping around homes and office buildings. It can also be sheared as a hedge.

Erosion control: White pine is frequently used for windbreaks and screens along fields new right-of-ways and around campsites.

Wildlife:

Gray and red squirrels, deer, mice and 16 species of songbirds have been known to eat the seed.

General description and characteristics of Eastern White Pine:

Eastern white pine is the largest conifer of the eastern and upper Midwest forests, reaching 150 feet in height and up to 40 inches in diameter. In dense stands, trees produce tall, cylindrical stems with pyramidal shaped crowns, characterized by distinctive, plate like branching, especially noticeable as the trees become older. On young growth, the bark remains rather thin, smooth, and greenish-brown in color. On older trees the bark becomes deeply fissured and dark grayish-brown in color. Its evergreen needles are in clusters of 5, soft, flexible, 2 1/2 to 5 inches long, and bluish-green in appearance. Its cones are about 4 to 8 inches long and 1 inch thick. These remain attached for 1 to several months after ripening in the autumn of the second season.