Eastern White Pine

The Eastern White Pine is found in North America, specifically the northeast.  It is the provincial tree for Ontario and the state tree of Michigan and Maine.  During the last Ice Age the Eastern White Pines were pushed south from Canada and are found today as far south as North Carolina.  The Eastern White Pines are slowly migrating west and were found in Minnesota by Europeans explorers in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  Native American tribes would eat the inner bark of the White Pine as a food source when all other food was scarce.  The Iroquois would use the resin from this plant, while mixing it with beeswax, to seal their canoes.  Other Native Americans would boil the bark and then apply the liquid to wounds.  Natives also would drink the boiled bark for a cough suppressant.  Once Europeans starting settling North America this tree was cut down a lot for ships.  Particularly the Royal Navy exploited the Eastern White Pine when they were the strongest navy in the world.  Today the main uses for this tree are for furniture and Christmas Trees.  It is used extensively for furniture because it is very easy to carve and the Eastern White Pine has less resin than other pines.  This pine also warps less than most other pine wood.  There is widespread cultivation for Christmas trees because they are very easy to cultivate, especially in the tree’s indigenous areas.

The bark is gray-brown in color and possesses broad ridges and scaly plates.  The cones are slender and thorn less baring two winged seeds.  The roots are wide spreading and somewhat deep.  It has been recorded that the white eastern pine can live to 450 years old, but usually lives to be 200 years old.  The tree grows to 80-110 feet tall and has a spread of 20-40 feet wide. It prefers well drained soils and a cool humid climate.  The tree can be attacked by a fungus commonly known as “white pine blister rust”.  Since the bark is thick it allows the tree to be somewhat fire resistant. It has been grown extensively through the years as Christmas trees. Small mammals eat the two winged seeds in the cones and in the winter rabbits chew on the outer bark.

Old white pines are treasured in the United States. An American National Natural Landmark, Cook Forest State Park in Pennsylvania, contains the tallest known tree in the Northeastern United States, a white pine named Longfellow Pine.[23] Some white pines in Wisconsin are over 200 years old.[24] Although widely planted as a landscape tree in the Midwestern states,[25] native White pine is listed as "rare or uncommon" in Indiana.[3][26] 

White pine xylem has been used as a filter to clean certain bacteria from contaminated water.[44] Hemacytometer tests revealed that at least 99.9% of bacteria tested were rejected after being passed through white pine xylem.[45] 

White pines are sensitive to heat, soil pH and the compacted soil common in landscapes. White pine is also one of the tree species most sensitive to air pollution damage.