Pine (White)

White Pine, or Pinus strobus, is soft and plumy in youth and irregular and majestic in old age, but always attractive. Even young White Pines have the gift of appearing full and dense, without appearing nearly as stiff or rigid as a Scotch or Austrian Pine. However, since it is a fast-growing tree with a tendency to shed limbs under ice and snow loads, White Pine is not a tree for restricted locations. Use with the knowledge that cleanup of broken, snow-damaged limbs will be a necessary task every spring after the tree reaches mature age. White Pine needles occur in bunches of 5 and persist for 18 months before abscising. White Pine grows 50'-80' tall with a 20'-40' spread. Pine Tip Weevil can become a serious problem for young White Pines, killing the terminal bud and causing the tree to become flat-topped and crooked, but this problem can be controlled. A very worthy tree for the right locations, it is native to the northeastern United States and Canada and is the State tree of both Maine and Michigan. In the 18th and 19th centuries especially, it was a highly regarded timber tree and is still valued for its lightweight, straight-grained wood (orange heartwood and white sapwood).