Habitat and Range.—In poor soils: sandy plains, dry woods.
Newfoundland and New Brunswick, throughout Quebec and Ontario, to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg.
Maine,—common, plains, Brunswick (Cumberland county); woods, Bristol (Lincoln county); from Amherst (western part of Hancock county) and Clifton (southeastern part of Penobscot county) northward just east of the Penobscot river the predominant tree, generally on dry ridges and eskers, but in Greenbush and Passadumkeag growing abundantly on peat bogs with black spruce; hillsides and lower mountains about Moosehead, scattered; New Hampshire,—ranges with the pitch pine as far north as the White mountains, but is less common, usually in groves of a few to several hundred acres in extent; Vermont,—less common than P. Strobus or P. rigida, but not rare; Massachusetts,—still more local, in stations widely separated, single trees or small groups; Rhode Island,—occasional; Connecticut,—not reported.
South to Pennsylvania; west through Michigan and Wisconsin to Minnesota.
Habit.—The most beautiful of the New England pines, 50-75 feet high, with a diameter of 2-3 feet at the ground; reaching in Maine a height of 100 feet and upwards; trunk straight, scarcely tapering; branches low, stout, horizontal or scarcely declined, forming a broad-based, rounded or conical head of great beauty when young, becoming more or less irregular with age; foliage of a rich dark green, in long dense tufts at the ends of the branches.
Bark.—Bark of trunk reddish-brown, in old trees marked by flat ridges which separate on the surface into thin, flat, loose scales; branchlets rough with persistent bases of leaf buds; season's shoots stout, orange-brown, smooth.
Winter Buds and Leaves.—Leading branch-buds conical, about 3/4 inch long, tapering to a sharp point, reddish-brown, invested with rather loose scales.
Foliage leaves in twos, from close, elongated, persistent, and conspicuous sheaths, about 6 inches long, dark green, needle-shaped, straight, sharply and stiffly pointed, the outer surface round and the inner flattish, both surfaces marked by lines of minute pale dots.
Inflorescence.—Sterile flowers clustered at the base of the season's shoots, oblong, ½-¾ inch long: fertile flowers single or few, at the ends of the season's shoots.
Fruit.—Cones near extremity of shoot, at right angles to the stem, maturing the second year, 1-3 inches long, ovate to oblong conical; when opened broadly oval or roundish; scales not hooked or pointed, thickened at the apex.