Eastern White Pine             PI-nus STRO-bus

• Conifer, evergreen tree, 30-60 ft (9-18 m), in youth a symmetrical pyramid, open, soft, pleasant appearance; with age, is composed of several horizontal and ascending branches.  Needles in bundles of five, slender, soft, bluish-green, 5-13 cm long, white stomatic lines on the two inner surfaces, sheath about 13 mm, falling away.    Cones subterminal, pendent, cylindrical, 15-20 cm long and 4 cm wide, often curved, apex pointed, light brown, resinous, mature in second year.  (Difficult to distinguish from P. monticola, which has wider, stiffer needles and which grow more dense.)
• Sun or partial shade. Best growth on fertile, moist, well-drained soil, but is found on dry, rocky ridges and wet sphagnum bogs. Tolerant to air pollution and salts. Decaying needles make the soil beneath the tree very acid, about pH 4.5, which suppresses the growth of other plant species.
• Susceptible to White Pine blister rust, which eventually kills the tree.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3     Native from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Georgia and Iowa.
• Several forms and cultivars, including: compact, dwarf, upright and weeping.
• strobus: Latin for gum yielding tree.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: north of Finley Hall (dorm).