Eastern White Pine
Long flexible needles grouped in fives, slender cones, and layered horizontal branches identify the eastern white pine.
Artwork inspired by Marsden Hartley
Eastern white pine can rise above surrounding forest with a broad irregular crown. The five-needle bundles give a quick field clue, while mature bark breaks into dark furrows. Straight old-growth trunks once drove colonial mast timber, but living pines now support wildlife, shade water, and record storms in broken or reshaped crowns.
White pine blister rust uses both pine and alternate hosts, while white pine weevil can kill leading shoots and create forked form. Neither makes a tree worthless. Look for how injury changes architecture, and avoid stripping inner bark or collecting whole branches for identification when a fallen needle bundle and cone are enough.
- Needles
- Five per bundle
- Cones
- Long, narrow, and flexible-scaled
- Maine link
- Official state tree
Quick guide
- Count to five
- The soft needles gather in bundles of five.
- Read the crown
- Old trees become broad, irregular, and storm-shaped.
Recognize and observe
- Count to five
- The soft needles gather in bundles of five.
- Read the crown
- Old trees become broad, irregular, and storm-shaped.
- Notice old injury
- Forked leaders may record weevil damage.
- Use fallen clues
- Identify with shed needles and cones instead of cutting.
Good to know
Maine’s official floral emblem is the white-pine cone and tassel, while eastern white pine is also widely treated as the state tree.
Notice these
- Five per bundle
- Long, narrow, and flexible-scaled
- Official state tree