Leaves soft bluish green, whitened on the ventral side by 3—5 bands of stomata, 3′—5′ long, mostly turning yellow and falling in September in their second season, or persistent until the following June. Flowers: male yellow; female bright pink, with purple scale margins. Fruit fully grown in July of the second season, 4′—8′ long, opening and discharging its seeds in September; seeds narrowed at the ends, ¼′ long, red-brown mottled with black, about one fourth as long as their wings.
A tree, while young with slender horizontal or slightly ascending branches in regular whorls usually of 5 branches; at maturity often 100°, occasionally 220° high, with a tall straight stem 3°—4° or rarely 6° in diameter, when crowded in the forest with short branches forming a narrow head, or rising above its forest companions with long lateral branches sweeping upward in graceful curves, the upper branches ascending and forming a broad open irregular head, and slender branchlets coated at first with rusty tomentum, soon glabrous, and orange-brown in their first winter. Bark on young stems and branches thin, smooth, green tinged with red, lustrous during the summer, becoming 1′—2′ thick on old trunks and deeply divided by shallow fissures into broad connected ridges covered with small closely appressed purplish scales. Wood light, not strong, straight-grained, easily worked, light brown often slightly tinged with red; largely manufactured into lumber, shingles, and laths, used in construction, for cabinet-making, the interior finish of buildings, wooden ware, matches, and the masts of vessels.
Distribution. Newfoundland to Manitoba, southward through the northern states to Pennsylvania, northern and eastern (Belmont County) Ohio, northern Indiana, valley of the Rocky River near Oregon, Ogle County, Illinois, and central and southeastern Iowa, and along the Appalachian Mountains to eastern Kentucky and Tennessee and northern Georgia; forming nearly pure forests on sandy drift soils, or more often in small groves scattered in forests of deciduous-leaved trees on fertile well-drained soil, also on the banks of streams, or on river flats, or rarely in swamps.
Largely planted as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern states, and in many European countries, where it grows with vigor and rapidity; occasionally used in forest planting in the United States.
2. [Pinus monticola] D. Don. White Pine.
Leaves blue-green, glaucous, whitened by 2—6 rows of ventral and often by dorsal stomata, mostly persistent 3 or 4 years. Flowers: male yellow; female pale purple. Fruit 5′—11′ long, shedding its seeds late in the summer or in early autumn; seeds narrowed at the ends, ⅓′ long, pale red-brown mottled with black, about one third as long as their wings.
A tree, often 100° or occasionally 150° high, with a trunk frequently 4°—5° or rarely 7°—8° in diameter, slender spreading slightly pendulous branches clothing young stems to the ground and in old age forming a narrow open often unsymmetrical pyramidal head, and stout tough branchlets clothed at first with rusty pubescence, dark orange-brown and puberulous in their first and dark red-purple and glabrous in their second season. Bark of young stems and branches thin, smooth, light gray, becoming on old trees ¾′—1½′ thick and divided into small nearly square plates by deep longitudinal and cross fissures, and covered by small closely appressed purple scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close, straight-grained, light brown or red; sometimes manufactured into lumber, used in construction and the interior finish of buildings.
Distribution. Scattered through mountain forests from the basin of the Columbia River in British Columbia to Vancouver Island; on the mountains of northern Washington to the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains of northern Montana; on the coast ranges of Washington and Oregon; and on the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges southward to the Kern River valley, California; most abundant and of its greatest value in northern Idaho on the bottom-lands of streams tributary to Lake Pend Oreille; reaching the sea-level on the southern shores of the Straits of Fuca and elevations of 10,000° on the California Sierras.
Often planted as an ornamental tree in Europe, and occasionally in the eastern United States where it grows more vigorously than any other Pine-tree of western America.