Pinus monticola

Western white pine, Western White Pine

Family: Pinaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Western white pine is a California native conifer found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Ranges, Sierra Nevada, and Great Basin in upper mixed-conifer to subalpine forests at elevations of 150 to 3,400 meters. Its mature trees develop distinctively narrow conic crowns with trunks up to 73 meters tall and bark that breaks into dark gray to red-brown square-like blocks. Growing with long blue-green needles arranged in bundles of five, each needle 3 to 10 centimeters long and appearing slightly glaucous and flexible. The tree produces large cylindrical seed cones 9 to 25 centimeters long, hanging pendulously and colored yellow-brown with thin scales and no visible prickles. Its unique bark texture and five-needled bundles make it a distinctive component of high-elevation western forest ecosystems.

Habitat: Upper mixed-conifer to subalpine forests

Elevation: 150-3400 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, CaRH, SNH, GB

California counties: El Dorado, Butte, Alpine, Fresno, Del Norte, Plumas, Humboldt, Amador, Mono, Madera, Placer, Modoc, Mariposa, Tulare, Tuolumne, Trinity, Tehama, Siskiyou, Shasta, Inyo, Sierra, Nevada, Lassen, Santa Clara, Lake, Mendocino, Calaveras, Glenn

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.