Pine Needles (Fresh) 100 g, 50 g

Pine Needles (Fresh) – 100 g ($14.99), 50 g ($10.99)

Botanical Name: Pinus strobus
English: White Pine
Also, known as:
Habitat: North America
Origin: Canada
Harvested: Wild
Parts Used: Leaves/Needles

General Information:
Pinus strobus, commonly denominated the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, United States, and south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and perhaps very rarely in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama. It is considered rare in Indiana.

The Native American Haudenosaunee denominated it the “Tree of Peace”. It is known as the “Weymouth pine” in the United Kingdom, after Captain George Weymouth of the British Royal Navy, who brought its seeds to England from Maine in 1605.

Pinus strobus is found in the near arctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome of eastern North America. It prefers well-drained or sandy soils and humid climates, but can also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests, this dominant tree towers over many others, including some of the large broadleaf hardwoods. It provides food and shelter for numerous forest birds, such as the red crossbill, and small mammals such as squirrels.

Like most members of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, the leaves (“needles”) are coniferous, occurring in fascicles (bundles) of 5, or rarely 3 or 4, with a deciduous sheath. The leaves are flexible, bluish-green, finely serrated, and 5–13 cm (2–5 in) long.

The seed cones are slender, 8–16 cm (3+1⁄4–6+1⁄4 in) long (rarely longer than that) and 4–5 cm (1+1⁄2–2 in) broad when open and have scales with a rounded apex and slightly reflexed tip, often resinous. The seeds are 4–5 mm (5⁄32–3⁄16 in) long, with a slender 15–20 mm (5⁄8–3⁄4 in) wing and are dispersed by wind. Cone production peaks every 3 to 5 years.

The branches are spaced about every 18 inches on the trunk with 5-6 branches appearing like spokes on a wagon wheel.

Eastern white pine is self-fertile, but seeds produced this way tend to result in weak, stunted, and malformed seedlings.

Mature trees are often 200–250 years old, and some live to over 400 years. A tree growing near Syracuse, New York was dated to 458 years old in the late 1980s and trees in Michigan and Wisconsin were dated to approximately 500 years old.