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Pinus albicaulis
Also called White-bark pine, Dwarf pine, Alpine white pine, Scrub Pine, Alpine Whitebark Pine, Northern Nut Pine, White Pine
Pinus albicaulis, known by the common names whitebark pine, white bark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, Pacific Coast Ranges, Rocky Mountains, and Ruby Mountains. It shares the common name "creeping pine" with several other plants.
The whitebark pine is typically the highest-elevation pine tree found in these mountain ranges and often marks the tree line. Thus, it is often found as krummholz, trees growing close to the ground that have been dwarfed by exposure. In more favorable conditions, the trees may grow to 29 meters (95 ft) in height.
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) can be found at high elevation in the Rocky Mountains from central British Columbia to western Wyoming. It occurs in the timberline zone of the Cascades and coastal ranges from British Columbia to the Sierra Nevada, as well as most high ranges between the Rockies and Cascades, such as the Blue Mountains. It is also populous in subalpine forests of Montana and Idaho.
Interior Salish peoples harvested seeds from this tree's cones for food. They were roasted, made into porridge, and mixed with dry berries.
Amami Pine · Rocky Mountains Bristlecone Pine · Arizona Pine · Pinus armandii var. mastersiana · Chinese White Pine · Pinus arunachalensis · Knobcone pine · Mexican White Pine · Foxtail Pine · Jack pine · Bhutan Pine · Turkish Pine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pinus albicaulis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
