Description:

The Largest northeastern conifer, a magnificent evergreen tree with straight trunk and crown of horizontal branches, 1 row added a year, becoming broad and irregular.

Height:

100', formerly 150' or more.

Diameter:

3-4' or more.

Leaves:

Evergreen; 2 1/2-5" long, 5 in bundle; slender; blue-green.'

Bark:

gray; smooth becoming rough; thick and deeply furrowed into narrow scaly ridges.

Cones:

4-8" long; narrowly cylindrical; yellow-brown; long-stalked; cone-scales thin, rounded, flat.

Flowers:

Flowers

Fruit:

Fruit

Habitat:

Well-drained sandy soils; sometimes in pure sand.

Comments:

The largest conifer and formerly the most valuable tree of the northeast, Eastern White Pine is used for construction, millwork, trim, and pulpwood. 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. It is the state tree of Maine, the Pine Tree State; the pine cone and tassel are the state's floral emblem. The seeds were introduced in England (where it is called Weymouth Pine) from Maine in 1605 by Captain George Weymouth of the British Navy.