red pine (EwA Guide to the Plants of the Fells (US))

red pine

Pinus resinosa

Summary ⁷

Pinus resinosa, known as red pine or Norway pine, is a pine native to North America. It occurs from Newfoundland west to Manitoba, and south to Pennsylvania, with several smaller, disjunct populations occurring in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and West Virginia, as well as a few small pockets in extreme northern New Jersey and northern Illinois.

Description ⁸

General: Red pine (Pinus resinosa) is a medium sized tree, up to twenty-five meters high and seventy-five centimeters in diameter (Farar 1995). The leaves are soft and flexible evergreen needles, in clusters of two, slender, 4”-6” long, dark green borne in dense tufts at the ends of branchlets. The fruit is ovoid-conic, with thin scales, becoming light chestnut-brown at maturity. The bark is thick and slightly divided by shallow fissures into broad flat ridges covered by thin loose red-brown scales (Sargent 1961). The root system is moderately deep, wide spreading, and very wind firm.

Distribution: Red pine is native to northeastern United States. This species ranges from Newfoundland and Manitoba, south to the mountains of Pennsylvania, west to Minnesota (Dirr 1990). For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.