Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus

Winter has settled over the Park, and most things are brown and dry.  For the most part, both plants and animals are hiding below ground, waiting for Spring's warmth.  Walking through the Park at this time, we particularly notice the evergreens.  Earlier we looked at one evergreen in the Park, the Virginia pine.  This week we will examine one of its relatives, the eastern white pine.  When we considered the Virginia pine, we noted that, like all conifers, pines have small, small delicate, male cones in the spring which produce pollen.  The pollen is carried by the wind to a female cone where sperm riding in the pollen are able to fertilize the egg.  Seeds are produced from the fertilized eggs, and the female cone enlarges and becomes woody, and eventually opens to disperse the seeds.  The seed cones of white pine, as seen below, are relatively longer and narrower, that is more cylindrical, than those of most pines.   Compare to the more conical cone of Virginia pine seen earlier.  Many species of pine have a sharp thorn or prickle on the tip of each cone scale, but white pine cones have no prickles, and are said to be unarmed.  White pine cones take two years from the time the eggs are fertilized until the cones open and drop their seeds.

When we looked at Virginia pine, we also noted that pines differ from other conifers in having their leaves or needles in clusters.  Technically, each cluster of needles is a tiny branch bearing a specific number of needle-like leaves.  White pine has five needles, up to four inches long, in each cluster, as seen below.  It is the only pine in the east with five needles in each cluster.

White pines are large trees, growing up to 200 feet tall.  The trunks are usually straight, and white pines are important timber trees.  Historically they were prized for making masts for sailing ships, because of their long straight trunks.  In colonial times, large tracts of forest were reserved for the royal navy and could not be logged by private citizens.  The leaves and inner bark were used by Native Americans to make a tea that was drunk to treat colds.  The large nutty seeds are an important source of food for wildlife.

White pines grow from Newfoundland west to Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, south throughout New England and, in the Appalachians to Georgia.  In Wildwood, white pines are scattered over the eastern slope of the Park.  White pine is the provincial tree of Ontario and the state tree of Maine and Michigan.

As we saw earlier, pines are in the Pinaceae or Pine Family, which includes spruces, firs, larches and hemlocks.  The genus name Pinus comes from the Latin word for pine, and the species name strobus was the ancient name for some, now unknown, aromatic tree.

GGC