Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Pinus strobus L., pine family
Other names	Northern white pine (Silvics); the Wood Handbook adds white pine, Weymouth pine and soft pine
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Age, Silvics	Commonly reaches 200 years if undisturbed; maximum age may exceed 450 years
Size, Silvics	Trees 102 cm (40 in) in diameter and 46 m (150 ft) tall were common in virgin forests; champion trees of 168 cm (66 in) and 48.2 m (158 ft) in Michigan and 173 cm (68 in) and 44.8 m (147 ft) in Maine
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	35 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 1, 1990) records eastern white pine across southern Canada from Newfoundland, Anticosti Island and the Gaspe peninsula of Quebec west to central and western Ontario and extreme southeastern Manitoba, south to southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa, east to northern Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and south mostly in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina. It also records the species in western Kentucky, western Tennessee and Delaware, and a variety in the mountains of southern Mexico and Guatemala. The handbook calls the tree one of the most valuable in eastern North America and says it is among the more rapid growing northern forest conifers, one of the more widely planted American trees, used for reforestation, landscaping and Christmas trees.

Growth

The handbook says height growth is slow for the first 2 to 3 years, then accelerates, peaking at an average annual rate of 1 m (3 ft) between ages 10 and 15 on a site index of 80 feet. Diameter growth may be as rapid as 2.5 cm (1 in) a year or as slow as 2.5 cm (1 in) over a 40-year span. It records a pre-European estimate of 3.4 billion cubic meters (600 billion board feet) of lumber in virgin stands, most of which had been logged by the late 1800s.

Flowers and cones

Silvics says white pine is monoecious. The male strobili are oval, 8 to 10 mm (0.3 to 0.4 in) long, mostly on the basal part of new shoots on older lateral branches in the lower crown, and light brown to brown at pollen shed. Female flowers are most often in the upper crown at the ends of the main branches, green and 5 to 38 mm (0.2 to 1.5 in) long at pollination. In the northeastern United States flowering occurs between May and June. Trees may start to bear female flowers at 5 to 10 years of age.

Roots

The handbook says the normal root system has just a vestige of a taproot, with usually three to five large roots spreading outward and downward and giving the tree a firm anchor under most conditions. Sinker roots that grow straight down are fairly common in deep, coarse-textured soils. It says much root grafting occurs in white pine stands.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) says the heartwood is light brown, often with a reddish tinge, and darkens on exposure to air. It describes comparatively uniform texture and straight grain, easy kiln drying, low shrinkage and high stability. The wood is lightweight, moderately soft, moderately low in strength, low in shock resistance and low in stiffness. It says practically all eastern white pine is converted into lumber, with a large share of second-growth knotty or lower-grade wood used as structural lumber.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.34	0.35
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	4,900	8,600
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	290	380

The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) says 277 insects and 110 disease organisms are known to attack white pine, and that only 16 insects and 7 diseases cause enough injury or mortality to be of concern. It names the white pine weevil, white pine blister rust and Armillaria mellea as the three most important.

White pine weevil. The handbook says it kills the terminal shoot, which may include the last 2 or 3 years of growth, and that the tree is seldom killed unless it is very small.
Blister rust. Cronartium ribicola, which the handbook calls highly virulent throughout the range, with trees susceptible from seedling stage through maturity.
Other insects. The white pine aphid, white pine sawfly, Zimmerman pine moth, Allegheny mound ant, pales weevil, pine root collar weevil, European pine shoot moth, eastern pine shoot borer, introduced pine sawfly and white pine cone borer.
Rots. Red ring rot (Phellinus pini), which it calls the most important heart rot; Haematostereum sanguinolentum, a wound parasite; and root rots from Phaeolus schweinitzii, Heterobasidion annosum, Inonotus tomentosus and Scytinostroma galactinium.
Needle fungi. Bifusella linearis, Scirrhia acicola and Capnodium pini.

The handbook also says the bark on exposed roots and the stem of second-growth stands is thin and fire resistance is low, and that old trees have thicker bark. The guide on reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.