Восточная белая сосна: описание и места обитания.

Species of conifer in the pine family Pinaceae

Pinus strobus, commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada, west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, United States, and south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and perhaps very rarely in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama. It is considered rare in Indiana. The Haudenosaunee maintain the tree as the central symbol of their multinational confederation, calling it the "Tree of Peace", where the Seneca use the name o’sóä’ and the Kanienʼkehá:ka call it onerahtase'ko:wa. Within the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Mi'kmaq use the term guow to name the tree, both the Wolastoqewiyik and Peskotomuhkatiyik call it kuw or kuwes, and the Abenaki use the term kowa. It is known as the "Weymouth pine" in the United Kingdom, after Captain George Weymouth of the British Royal Navy, who brought its seeds to England from Maine in 1605.

P. strobus is found in the nearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome of eastern North America. It prefers well drained or sandy soils and humid climates, but can also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests, this dominant tree towers over many others, including some of the large broadleaf hardwoods. It provides food and shelter for numerous forest birds, such as the red crossbill, and small mammals such as squirrels. Eastern white pine forests originally covered much of north central and northeastern North America. Only 1% of the old growth forests remain after the extensive logging operations from the 18th century to early 20th century. Old growth forests, or virgin stands, are protected in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Other protected areas with known virgin forests, as confirmed by the Eastern Native Tree Society, include Algonquin Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park, Algoma Highlands in Ontario, and Sainte Marguerite River Old Forest in Quebec, Canada; Estivant Pines, Huron Mountains, Porcupine Mountains State Park, and Sylvania Wilderness Area in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States; Hartwick Pines State Park in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan; Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin; Lost 40 Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota; White Pines State Park, Illinois; Cook Forest State Park, Hearts Content Scenic Area, and Anders Run Natural Area in Pennsylvania; and the Linville Gorge Wilderness in North Carolina, United States. Small groves or individual specimens of old growth eastern white pines are found across the range of the species in the USA, including in Ordway Grove, Maine; Ice Glen, Massachusetts; and Adirondack Park, New York. Many sites with conspicuously large specimens represent advanced old field ecological succession. The tall stands in Mohawk Trail State Forest and William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Massachusetts are examples. As an introduced species, P. strobus is now naturalizing in the Outer Western Carpathians subdivision of the Carpathian Mountains in Czech Republic and southern Poland. It has spread from specimens planted as ornamental trees.

Like most members of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, the leaves ("needles") are coniferous, occurring in fascicles (bundles) of five, or rarely three or four, with a deciduous sheath. The leaves are flexible, bluish green, finely serrated, and long. The seed cones are slender, long (rarely longer than that) and broad when open, and have scales with a rounded apex and slightly reflexed tip, often resinous. The seeds are long, with a slender wing, and are dispersed by wind. Cone production peaks every 3 to 5 years. The branches are spaced about every 18 inches on the trunk with five or six branches appearing like spokes on a wagon wheel. Eastern white pine is self fertile, but seeds produced this way tend to result in weak, stunted, and malformed seedlings. Mature trees are often 200–250 years old, and some live over 400 years. A tree growing near Syracuse, New York, was dated to 458 years old in the late 1980s and trees in Michigan and Wisconsin were dated to roughly 500 years old.

The eastern white pine has been described as the tallest tree in eastern North America, perhaps sharing the prize with the deciduous tulip tree whose range overlaps with eastern white pine in a few areas. In natural precolonial stands, the pine is reported to have grown as tall as No means exist for accurately documenting the height of trees from these times, but eastern white pine may have reached this height on rare occasions. Even greater heights have been reported in popular, but unverifiable, accounts such as Robert Pike's Tall Trees, Tough Men. Total trunk volumes of the largest specimens are around , with some past giants possibly reaching Photographic analysis of giants suggests volumes closer to .

P. strobus grows about annually between the ages of 15 and 45 years, with slower height increments before and after that age range. The tallest presently living specimens are tall, as determined by the Native Tree Society (NTS). Prior to their exploitation, it was common for white pines in northern Wisconsin to reach heights of over 60.96 m. Three locations in the Southeastern United States and one site in the Northeastern United States have trees that are tall. Common height of 80 feet or more. The southern Appalachian Mountains have the most locations and the tallest trees in the present range of P. strobus. One survivor is a specimen known as the "Boogerman Pine" in the Cataloochee Valley of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At tall, it is the tallest accurately measured tree in North America east of the Rocky Mountains, though this conflicts with citations for Liriodendron tulipifera. It has been climbed and measured by tape drop by the NTS. Before Hurricane Opal broke its top in October 1995, Boogerman Pine was tall, as determined by Will Blozan and Robert Leverett using ground based measurements. The tallest specimens in Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan are tall. In the northeastern USA, eight sites in four states currently have trees over tall, as confirmed by the NTS. The Cook Forest State Park of Pennsylvania has the most numerous collection of eastern white pines in the Northeast, with 110 trees measuring that height or more. The park's "Longfellow Pine" is the tallest presently living eastern white pine in the Northeast, at tall, as determined by tape drop. The Mohawk Trail State Forest of Massachusetts has 83 trees measuring or more tall, of which six exceed The "Jake Swamp Tree" located there is tall. The NTS maintains precise measurements of it. A private property in Claremont, New Hampshire, has approximately 60 specimens that are tall.

Diameters of the larger pines range from , which translates to a circumference (girth) range of However, single trunked white pines in both the Northeast and Southeast with diameters over are exceedingly rare. Notable big pine sites of or less often have no more than two or three trees in the 1.2 to 1.4 m diameter class. Common diameter of 2 3 feet.

Because the eastern white pine tree is somewhat resistant to fire, mature survivors are able to reseed burned areas. In pure stands, mature trees usually have no branches on the lower half of their trunks. The white pine weevil (Pissodes strobi) and white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), an introduced fungus, can damage or kill these trees.

Mortality from white pine blister rust in mature pine groves was often 50–80% during the early 20th century. The fungus must spend part of its lifecycle on alternate hosts of the genus Ribes, the native gooseberry or wild currant. Foresters proposed that if all the alternate host plants were removed, white pine blister rust might be eliminated. A very determined campaign was mounted, and all land owners in commercial pine growing regions were encouraged to uproot and kill all native gooseberry and wild currant plants. The ramifications for wildlife and habitat ecology were of less concern at the time than timber industry protection. Some white pines in Wisconsin are over 200 years old. Although widely planted as a landscape tree in the Midwestern states, native White pine is listed as "rare or uncommon" in Indiana.

Cultivars have been selected for small to dwarf mature forms, and foliage color characteristics. The branches of the eastern white pine are also widely used in making holiday wreaths and garlands because of their soft, feathery needles.

White pine xylem has been used as a filter to clean certain bacteria from contaminated water. Hemacytometer tests revealed that at least 99.9% of bacteria tested were rejected after being passed through white pine xylem.

The eastern white pine is the provincial tree of Ontario, Canada. In the United States, it is the state tree of Maine (as of 1945) and Michigan (as of 1955). Its "pine cone and tassel" is also the state flower of Maine, and is prominently featured on the state’s license plates. Sprigs of eastern white pine were worn as badges as a symbol of Vermont identity during the Vermont Republic and are depicted in a stained glass window in the Vermont State House, on the Flag of Vermont, and on the naval ensign of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the state of Maine. The 1901 Maine Flag prominently featured the tree during its brief tenure as Maine's state flag. The Maine State Guard also use the tree in their uniform badges. The indigenous Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederation) named it the "Tree of Peace". Since 2017, it has appeared on the flag and seal of the city of Montreal to represent the indigenous peoples of the area.