White Pine Cone & Tassel (Pinus Strobus, Linnaeus)   White Pine Cone & Tassel is the state flower of Maine. Buy state flowers

The White Pine is considered the largest conifer in the northeastern United States. Leaves (needles) are soft, flexible and bluish-green to silver green in color and are regularly arranged in bundles of five. Needles are 2 1/2-5 inches long and are usually shed at the end of the second growing season. Flowers (strobili) occur on the tree. Cones are 4-8 inches in length, usually slightly curved. Cone scales are thin and never have prickles. Cones also have a fragrant gummy resin. Maine’s towering white pines were very famous. A pine was already depicted on Maine’s state seal and flag, and Maine was nicknamed the Pine Tree State. A pine tree flag represented New England, to which Maine belongs, during the Revolutionary War. New England’s white pines became famous before the United States even existed. Europe’s forests had long been exploited for lumber, which was used to build ships as well as homes. Tall, straight trees were especially in demand for use as masts. (A mast is a pole which supports sails.) When Columbus discovered America in 1492, Spain was one of the most powerful nations. But England’s navy was also becoming larger. The ship-building trade greatly depleted England’s limited forests. No better source of mast trees could be found than New England. Here, white pines towered more than one hundred feet above the rocky ground littered with pine needles. In 1605, Captain George Weymouth of the British Royal Navy collected white pine from Maine and sent the samples back to England. In 1691, England established a Broad Arrow Policy. Trees that were twenty-four inches or more in diameter and grew within three miles of water belonged to the Royal Navy. Such trees were blazed with the mark of the broad arrow. This is how the term King’s Pine originated. Most of Maine’s mast trees were cut by 1850. Lumber production peaked in 1909, not long after Maine adopted its state flower. In 1945, the white pine was adopted as Maine’s state tree. Today, it is called the eastern white pine, which is also the official tree of Michigan and Ontario. Idaho’s state tree is the even taller western white pine. ********

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