Monterey pine (Pinus radiata): 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. Two disease pages cover problems the handbook names under older names: Dothistroma needle blight (red band needle blight) and Heterobasidion root disease (annosus root disease).

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Pinus radiata D. Don, pine family (Silvics and PLANTS, symbol PIRA2)
Other names, Silvics	Radiata pine and insignis pine; pino insigne in Spanish
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in the lower 48 states
Mature size, Silvics	Height from 9 to 38 m (30 to 125 ft), generally 21 to 30 m (69 to 98 ft) at Monterey; diameter on a good site just under 64 cm (25 in), with a few trees reaching 122 cm (48 in)
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	50 lb per cubic foot, without bark (Table 1A); green specific gravity 0.40
Strength, Wood Handbook Table 5-5b, woods imported into the United States	Green: specific gravity 0.42 and modulus of rupture 6,100 lbf per square inch; at 12 percent moisture content, 11,700 lbf per square inch

Where it grows

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, Volume 1, 1990) says Monterey pine is the most widely planted pine in the world and the leading introduced species in Australia, New Zealand and Spain, and a major plantation species in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Kenya and South Africa. Its native stands are in three separate places on the central coast of California, in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties: a northern stand east of Ano Nuevo Point, a central stand near Monterey and Carmel, and a southern stand in the Pico Creek and Cambria area. The pine is seldom found more than 11 km (7 mi) from the sea. The handbook adds a close relative on Guadalupe Island and Cedros Island off Baja California, shown to be most closely related to Pinus radiata. It puts the total area occupied at no more than 8,000 ha (19,770 acres). The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) likewise describes it as native to a small stretch of California and two small islands of Baja California, and planted extensively in Chile, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

Climate, soils and fire

Silvics ties the habitat to the Pacific: cold southward currents bring humidity, low temperatures and summer fog, with at least one-third of days foggy each year. Annual precipitation is 380 to 890 mm (15 to 35 in), mostly from December to March, and no snow falls in the natural range. Tree crowns collect fog moisture in July and August. Soils are mostly deep sandy loams, often from marine sediments, over a clay layer at 50 to 85 cm (20 to 33 in), and generally acid. Elevations run from sea level to 305 m (1,000 ft) on the mainland. The handbook calls fire a major influence: it opens cones and prepares a seedbed, much regeneration and several even-aged stands trace to fire, and without it coast Douglas-fir would take over land the pines occupy at Ano Nuevo. At Monterey the most common tree companion is coast live oak.

Cones, seed and growth

The handbook describes a monoecious tree that flowers in late winter and early spring. Fertile cones appear as early as 5 to 10 years, with substantial crops from age 15 or 20 in open-grown trees. Cones mature in the autumn of the second season, are 8 to 18 cm (3 to 7 in) long and hold 120 to 200 seeds; they stay on the tree for many years and open and close with temperature and humidity. Fire releases large amounts of stored seed. Scrub jays, Steller's jays, crows, deer mice, chipmunks and ground squirrels are named as seed eaters. Germination is epigeal, and new seedlings bear a whorl of five to nine cotyledons. Silvics reports that Monterey pine does not reproduce from sprouts, and that seedlings commonly reach 30 to 56 cm (12 to 22 in) in height after one growing season.

It is among the fastest growing American conifers: on good sites, saplings gained 1.2 to 2.4 m (4 to 8 ft) a year, and by age 15 trees were 24 cm (9.4 in) in diameter and 16 m (53 ft) tall. The handbook says the tree is short lived, reaching full size in 80 to 100 years and rarely living beyond 150. It records yields of 770 cubic meters per hectare (11,004 cubic feet per acre) in New Zealand plantations 35 to 40 years old, against an average of less than 281 cubic meters per hectare in natural stands. Silvics classes shade tolerance as intermediate, with seedlings tolerant, pole-stage trees less so and mature trees intolerant, and calls the species moderately windfirm on deeper soils and less so on shallow ones.

Damaging agents the handbook names

Weather and fire. Silvics says even a few hours below freezing can seriously damage or kill trees of any age, fast-growing or newly planted trees are open to windthrow in winter storms, and a sudden rise to 38 degrees C (100 degrees F) or more scorches needles. Ozone is the one pollutant named as a significant harm in the native range. Fire is a particular hazard to young, thin-barked trees.
Diseases in the native range. The handbook lists digger pine dwarf mistletoe, western gall rust, coastal gall rust and annosus root disease as significant, and says Armillaria root disease does minor damage.
Diseases in plantations outside the native range. It names red band needle blight (Scirrhia pini) as the most damaging, calling it a worldwide pathogen not found in native stands and a major concern for plantations in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern coastal California, and says as many as 35 other pathogens cause negligible to minor damage.
Insects. It cites 56 insects feeding on the pine, relatively few causing significant damage and five able to kill trees: four bark beetles (Monterey pine ips, California four-spined ips, pinyon ips and red turpentine beetle) and the Monterey pine weevil, a threat mainly to young trees. The Monterey pine cone beetle is described as probably the most serious of the minor insects, attacking maturing cones in central California.
Animals. Goat overgrazing on Guadalupe Island has virtually eliminated regeneration there.

For who takes reports of regulated pests, see reporting a pest in the United States, and pests and diseases by country sets out which ones agencies regulate.

Wood and uses

Silvics calls the wood light, soft, brittle and coarse-grained, and says crooked trunks, little clear bole and frequent disease make it of little commercial value as lumber in the United States, with past use as coarse lumber and fuelwood, while many other countries value it for wood products. It records the pine as widely planted for ornament, screens and erosion control, and propagated for Christmas trees.

The Wood Handbook describes plantation-grown radiata pine as having light brown to pinkish brown heartwood and paler cream-colored sapwood, with an average density of 480 kg per cubic meter (30 lb per cubic foot) at 12 percent moisture content and strength comparable with red pine. It says the wood dries rapidly with little degrade, the sapwood is prone to stain fungi and vulnerable to boring insects, and the heartwood is rated durable above ground. Its listed uses are veneer, plywood, pulp, fiberboard, construction, boxes and millwork.