White Pine

Description

White Pine has high wildlife value with gray and red squirrels, deer and mice eating the seed.  It can be used as a specimen, windbreak or pruned as a hedge.

Cultivars/Varieties

‘Aurea’ very similar to ‘Hillside Winter Gold’, though the needles are yellow-green even in summer, with deeper coloring in winter.

‘Compacta’ and ‘Nana’ – catch-all names for a wide assortment of selections with dwarf, mounded and compact habits.

‘Blue Shag’ –  rounded compact plant with bluish-green needles.

‘Contorta’ – The main trunk and lateral branches of this plant twist and turn, though the plant forms an upright pyramidal small tree.

‘Fastigiata’ – This narrow columnar form reaches 50′ to 70′ tall with a much narrower spread (typically 3 times as tall than wide). The blue-green needles are long and soft in texture.

‘Glauca’ – catch-all term for many forms that bear bluish-green needles.

‘Hillside Winter Gold’ –  full-sized tree, featuring light green summer needles that turn a striking golden yellow in fall and winter.

‘Pendula’ –  Large, pendulous tree exhibits extreme variation in habit and form. The branches twist and droop, exposing the gray bark and displaying the long, blue-green needles very effectively. It can be trained from an early age to achieve a desired effect.

‘Sea Urchin’ – dwarf globular form,  blue-green needles and is slow-growing.

‘UConn’ –  “intermediate” form. In time,  becomes a dense, rounded pyramidal tree to 20′ tall, needles are  blue-green.

Sources

Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed

White Pine – USDA Plant Fact Sheet

White Pine – Missouri Botanical Garden

White Pine – University of Connecticut Plant Database

Landscape Plants Rated by Deer Resistance – Rutgers

Recommended for Wildlife by

Gardening for the Birds by George Adams

Songbirds – FS613

Twelve Ways to Design a Bird Friendly Garden – Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Landscaping to Attract Birds – Baltimore Bird Club

For the Birds, Butterflies & Hummingbirds:  Creating Inviting Habitats – Virginia Extension

Bringing Nature Home by Tallamy

Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States by Dove & Woolridge

Photo Credits

Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping: Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Robert H. Mohlenbrock, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. 1995. Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. Northeast National Technical Center, Chester.