The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Norway pine, pin rouge, red pine

foxtail pine

Habit Trees to 37m; trunk to 1.5m diam., straight; crown narrowly rounded. Trees to 22m; trunk to 2.6m diam., erect or leaning; crown broadly conic to irregular.
Bark

light red-brown, furrowed and cross-checked into irregularly rectangular, scaly plates.

gray to salmon or cinnamon, platy or irregularly deep-fissured or with irregular blocky plates.

Branches

spreading-ascending;

twigs moderately slender (to 1cm thick), orange- to red-brown, aging darker brown, rough.

contorted, ascending to descending;

twigs red-brown, aging gray to drab yellow-gray, glabrous or puberulent, young branches resembling long bottlebrushes because of persistent leaves.

Buds

ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, to ca. 2cm, resinous;

scale margins fringed.

ovoid-acuminate, red-brown, 0.8–1cm, resinous.

Leaves

2 per fascicle, straight or slightly twisted, brittle, breaking cleanly when bent, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with narrow stomatal bands, margins serrulate, apex short-conic, acute;

sheath 1–2.5cm, base persistent.

5 per fascicle, upcurved, persisting 10–30 years, 1.5–4cm × 1–1.4mm, mostly connivent, deep blue- to deep yellow-green, abaxial surface without median groove but usually with 2 subepidermal but evident resin bands, adaxial surfaces conspicuously whitened by stomates, margins mostly entire to blunt, apex broadly acute to acuminate;

sheath 0.5–1cm, soon forming rosette, shed early.

Pollen cones

ellipsoid, ca. 15mm, dark purple.

ellipsoid, ca. 6–10mm, red.

Seed(s)

cones maturing and opening in 2 years, spreading, symmetric, ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid to nearly globose when open, 3.5–6cm, light red-brown, nearly sessile;

apophyses slightly thickened, slightly raised, transversely low-keeled;

umbo central, centrally depressed, unarmed.

cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-cylindric with conic base before opening, broadly lance-ovoid or ovoid to cylindric or ovoid-cylindric when open, 6–9(–11)cm, purple, aging red-brown, nearly sessile;

apophyses much thickened, rounded, larger toward cone base;

umbo central, usually depressed;

prickle absent or weak, to 1mm, resin exudates amber.

2n

=24.

=24.

Pinus resinosa

Pinus balfouriana

Habitat Sandy soils, eastern boreal forests Timberline and alpine meadows
Elevation 200–800(–1300)m (700–2600(–4300)ft) 1500–3500m (4900–11500ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; IL; MA; ME; MI; MN; NH; NJ; NY; PA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pinus resinosa was once the most important timber pine in the Great Lakes region.

Norway pine (Pinus resinosa) is the state tree of Minnesota.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Pinus balfouriana is the true "foxtail pine." In leaf character it is hardly, if at all, distinguishable from P. longaeva, but its strongly conic-based cones with distinctly shorter-prickled, sunken-centered umbos at once distinguish it from that species.

Plants shown to be genetically distinct from the type (differences in chemistry, form, foliage, cone orientation, and seeds) have been called Pinus balfouriana subsp. austrina R.Mastrogiuseppe & J.Mastrogiuseppe. As in several other species or species complexes in Pinus, however, there is a problem with a character gradient involving related taxa. The evidence presented by D.K. Bailey (1970) and later by R.J. Mastrogiuseppe and J.D. Mastrogiuseppe (1980) could as well be used to indicate that P. balfouriana (with its two infraspecific taxa) and P. longaeva represent a single species of three subspecies or three varieties. The more conservative view of Bailey is followed here.

Of conservation concern.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Pinaceae > Pinus Pinaceae > Pinus
Sibling taxa
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. balfouriana, P. banksiana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. edulis, P. elliottii, P. engelmannii, P. flexilis, P. glabra, P. jeffreyi, P. lambertiana, P. leiophylla, P. longaeva, P. monophylla, P. monticola, P. muricata, P. palustris, P. ponderosa, P. pungens, P. quadrifolia, P. radiata, P. rigida, P. sabiniana, P. serotina, P. strobiformis, P. strobus, P. sylvestris, P. taeda, P. torreyana, P. virginiana, P. washoensis
P. albicaulis, P. aristata, P. attenuata, P. banksiana, P. cembroides, P. clausa, P. contorta, P. coulteri, P. echinata, P. edulis, P. elliottii, P. engelmannii, P. flexilis, P. glabra, P. jeffreyi, P. lambertiana, P. leiophylla, P. longaeva, P. monophylla, P. monticola, P. muricata, P. palustris, P. ponderosa, P. pungens, P. quadrifolia, P. radiata, P. resinosa, P. rigida, P. sabiniana, P. serotina, P. strobiformis, P. strobus, P. sylvestris, P. taeda, P. torreyana, P. virginiana, P. washoensis
Synonyms P. balfouriana var. austrina, P. balfouriana subsp. austrina
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 3: 367. (1789) Greville & Balfour: in A. Murray bis, Bot. Exped. Oregon 8: no. 618, plate 3, fig. 1. (1853)
Web links