Mature red pine in its native habitat in Minnisota.
You can see where the tree gets it's name.
Red Pine
Pinus resinosa
Red pine is another two needle pine, similar in growth habit to Scots pine, but supposedly a much darker green with needles that are longer than scots pine. My oldest aren't yet two feet tall. Bit soon to tell.
Branch tip with cones.
Note needles longer that scots pine, nearly as long as ponderosa.
Red pine is native from the Great Lakes eastward in both southern Canada and northeast U.S. Common tree in northern Minnesota. Natively it is most common on acidic sandy soils, and gravelly ridges (glacial till). Often on soil with low fertiity. Can be in pure stands or mixed with jack or white pine, aspen, oak or birch.
Needles are brittle, and can be broken by bending them.
This is not a common characteristic, and can be used with care to distinguish
red pine from other pines.
Sun: Requires full sun.
Hardiness: Extremely hardy -- zone 2.
Good on windy sites.
Salt tolerance: Intolerant of salt, not good as a road side tree. Will not do well in desert soils which tend to have high soil salts. Should be planted on hill top or slope, not at base of hill.
Long lived tree -- about 350 years or so. In moderately good stands it reaches a height of 65 to a 100 feet, with a trunk diameter of 1 to 3 feet. Bark on recently mature limbs and trunk is red-orange, although the main trunk on older trees is grey, with the color showing only on the edges of the plates.
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