Pinus strobus
Sp. Pl. 2: 1001. 1753.
Trees to 67m; trunk to 1.8m diam., straight; crown conic, becoming rounded to flattened. Bark gray-brown, deeply furrowed, with long, irregularly rectangular, scaly plates. Branches whorled, spreading-upswept; twigs slender, pale red-brown, glabrous or pale puberulent, aging gray, ±smooth. Buds ovoid-cylindric, light red-brown, 0.4–0.5cm, slightly resinous. Leaves 5 per fascicle, spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 6–10cm × 0.7–1mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, deep green to blue-green, pale stomatal lines evident only on adaxial surfaces, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to short-acuminate; sheath 1–1.5cm, shed early. Pollen cones ellipsoid, 10–15mm, yellow. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, clustered, pendent, symmetric, cylindric to lance-cylindric or ellipsoid-cylindric before opening, ellipsoid-cylindric to cylindric or lance-cylindric when open, (7–)8–20cm, gray-brown to pale brown, with purple or gray tints, stalks 2–3cm; apophyses slightly raised, resinous at tip; umbo terminal, low. Seeds compressed, broadly obliquely obovoid; body 5–6mm, red-brown mottled with black; wing 1.8–2.5cm, pale brown. 2n =24.
Habitat: Mesic to dry sites
Elevation: 0–1500m
Distribution
St. Pierre and Miquelon, Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Conn., Del., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., Ohio, R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis., Mexico, Central America in Guatemala.
Discussion
Pinus strobus is an important timber tree; because of extensive lumbering, few uncut stands remain. It was once prized as a source for ship masts, and large tracts of it were reserved for the Royal Navy during colonial times.
Pinus strobus var. chiapensis appears to be as Martínez saw it: a clinal variant that, compared to the type variety, has finer leaves, different resin canal distribution, and heavier cones when cones of similar sizes are compared.
Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) is the provincial tree of Ontario and the state tree of Maine and Michigan.
Selected References
None.