what pine is this?

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Let's face it, most cultivated pines in the DC area look like cr-p
these days. White pines (P. strobus), after long enough, generally start
to have their crowns broken apart by the wet, heavy snows we have that
are not characteristic of their native home. Southern pines, rare as
they are up here, are seldom planted in sites that really allow them to
develop well. All of them tend to have dead branchlets here and there.

I don't know what this is but it's one of the best looking pines I've seen in the lower mid-Atlantic. It was an emerald-green color that I thought was quite uncharacteristic of Pinus strobus. The habit as well, with the upswept tips, doesn't look like it either...OTOH I don't think I, at least, can rule out Pinus strobus based on what I know about them. Likewise it doesn't look like Pinus wallachianas I've seen. It doesn't really look like any white pine in terms of foliar color...most of them are blueish, right? Could this be a rare east Asian pine, like Pinus taiwanensis?

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Comments (6)

pineresin
11 years ago
Any cones you can get pics of?

Failing that, my first provisional guess would be Pinus peuce.

Resin
UpperBayGardener (zone 7)
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Resin, thanks.

I probably won't be able to get a cone any time soon, if ever. However, here is the location of the tree, at the Cape Verde embassy...and how perfect, if you pan around 180 degrees, you will see what a typical Pinus strobus looks like in the DC area. You will see why I have a preference!

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.924747,-77.067875,3a,75y,29.07h,97.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szySFqdpleZrdekdTgGi1tw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
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pineresin
11 years ago
Must admit it looks more like P. strobus in the streetview pic, but still wouldn't rule out P. peuce, which does have the advantage of being better able to cope with wet snow (it's tough!). At least there's no pines native to Cape Verde, so no patriotic planting involved!

No cones on the tree in either pic.

Resin
bengz6westmd
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Looks like a typical vigorous strobus, but maybe peuce looks the same. Maybe it's being inadvertently fertilized by the lawn crews....
wisconsitom
11 years ago
It is a good looker but I believe there are numerous P. strobus of roughly the same appearance, leastways where I reside. Additionally, if for some odd reason that one is in a somewhat different soil type than is usual for the DC area, it could account for its better appearance. Those soil differences would be sandier and more acidic reaction. I don't know P. peuce worth a darn, so take this with a grain or two of NaCl.

+oM
UpperBayGardener (zone 7)
Original Author
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
There are many over-fertilized P. strobus in the suburbs of DC. If they were all this emerald green, I'd have noticed. At the very least, it is an unusually non-glaucous ecotype. It's also more tufted than billowly. Believe me, a typical Pinus strobus would not have gotten a second glance from me.