USA Official State Tree of Idaho

Western White Pine

Adopted on February 13, 1935.

The Western White Pine, Pinaceae Pinus monticolathe,  state tree, is probably most notable since the largest remaining volume of this timber in the United States grows in the northern part of Idaho. White Pine has many fine qualities such as straight grain and soft even texture. Adopted by the 1935 legislature.

The Western White Pine is probably most notable since the largest remaining volume of this timber in the United States grows in the northern part of Idaho.

Western white pine (Pinus monticola), also called mountain white pine, Idaho white pine, or silver pine, is an important timber tree. Its lightweight, nonresinous, straight-grained wood exhibits dimensional stability that makes it particularly valuable for sash, frames, and doors, interior paneling, building construction, match wood, and toothpicks. Western white pine grows rapidly to a large size; one of the largest standing trees measures 200 cm (78.6 in) in d.b.h. and 72.8 m (239 ft) tall in the mountains near Medford, OR.

Description:

• Leaf: Acicular, 2 to 4 inches long, fascicles of 5, blue-green with white lines of stomatal bloom on two of the three needle surfaces, persist 3 to 4 years, bundle sheath is deciduous, apex blunt.
• Flower: Monoecious; male cones are small, yellow, and clustered near the tips of branches; female cones are larger, almost round, greenish-pink in color, and clustered near the tips of branches in the upper parts of the crown.
• Fruit: Large cylindrical woody cones, 5 to 12" long, thin and curved. Brown when mature; scales thin and unarmed, typically tipped with globs of white resin; very short stalk.
• Twig: Moderately stout and grayish-brown.
• Bark: Initially thin and grayish-green later becoming up to 2 inches thick, gray to purplish-gray and broken into square or rectangular blocks, not ridged and furrowed. Dark bands commonly encircle the tree where whorls of branches have fallen off.
• Form: Tall, straight, evergreen conifer growing to 180 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter with an open crown, long up-raised branches near the top (horizontal lower down); bole commonly free of branches for half its length.