Western White Pine

(Pinus monticola)

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Color Photographs: © by and courtesy of Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences

Western White Pine (Pinus monticola)

Identifying Characters: The stalked cone 5 to 11 inches long, flexible cone scales, western distribution, and deciduous sheath at the base of the needle bunches will identify Western White Pine.

Similar Species: Western White Pine might be confused with Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana). However the cones of Sugar Pine are nearly twice as long as those of Western White Pine (5-11 inches in Western White Pine versus 11-18 inches in Sugar Pine). The needles of Western White Pine lack white stripes on their dorsal surface, but these lines are present in Sugar Pine. White lines are present on the ventral surfaces of both species.

Measurements: Mature trees are common to 100 feet tall and 36 inches in diameter and old trees sometimes reach up to 200 feet and 70 inches in diameter.

Cones: Cones are elongate and long stalked and range between 5 to 10 inches in length; cone scales thin and flexible, outer margin rounded, but ending in a point.

Needles: Needles occur in bundles of five and are green to blue-green in color; needles are evergreen and the bundle sheath is deciduous, shedding after the first year; needles are 2 to 4 inches long with whitish lines on the ventral surfaces.

Bark: Bark on old trees 0.75 to 1.5 inches thick and divided into small, nearly square plates by deep longitudinal and cross fissures; plates covered by small purple scales.

Native Range: Western White Pine grows along the west coast from latitude 35° 51' N. in southern Tulare County, California to latitude 51° 30' N. near Butte Inlet in southern British Columbia. Along the west coast, the species grows on Vancouver Island, in adjacent British Columbia, southward through Washington and Oregon, and in the Cascade Mountains. It is also found in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon and northern California, in the Sierra Nevada of California, and near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

In the interior, Western White Pine grows from latitude 52° 30' N. near Quesnel Lake, British Columbia, southward through the Selkirk Mountains of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, and into the Bitterroot Mountains in western Montana. Its southernmost interior limit is in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon (latitude 44° 14' N.). Isolated populations are found as far east as Glacier National Park, Montana. It attains its greatest size and reaches its best stand and commercial development in the Inland Empire, which includes northern Idaho and adjacent sections of Montana, Washington, and British Columbia. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Western White Pine occurs in moist montane soils, usually in mixed forests, but occasionally in pure stands.