# Gray Pine (Pinus sabiniana)

> Gray pine, Pinus sabiniana: a large tree of 40 to 70 feet where planted, for zones 8 to 9, how fast it grows, and the natives we grow for the same ground.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/species/gray-pine/

![The open crown of a gray pine, its long gray-green needles in tufts and large cones on the branches](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/gray-pine-1000.jpg?v=3ddc237b "Gray pine on Mount Diablo, California, on November 21, 2009. Its greatest age probably exceeds 200 years.")
*Photo: Nina, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APinus_sabiniana_Mount_Diablo_0.jpg))*

Large tree, 40 to 70 feet where planted, zones 8 to 9; full sun or part shade; dry or average ground.

We do not grow gray pine, and it is not in our shop. This page gathers what our tools say about it and the natives we grow for the same ground.

## At a glance

| Fact | Gray Pine |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | California foothill pine, foothill pine, foothills pine, ghost pine, grayleaf pine |
| Form | Large tree |
| Height, feet | 40 to 70 where planted; up to 135 in its native stands |
| Spread, feet | Up to 20 |
| Zones | 8 to 9 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Dry or average ground |
| Growth | Fast |
| Leaves | Evergreen |
| Traits | Wildlife value, erosion control |
| Pollen | March to April |
| Fruit | Cones, September to February |
| First crop | 10 to 25 years (cones noted at 2) |
| Pollination | One bears; a second improves the crop. Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen, but a lone pine tends to set less seed than pines in a group. |
| Lifespan | Can live 200 years or more, and the oldest one found was at least 174. Only a tiny share of trees has ever had its age measured. A forest survey recorded a breast-height age of 174 years for a tree 34 inches through in Mendocino County, California, in 2023. |
| Planting season | Spring. The NRCS plant guide sets container seedlings out in late winter or early spring in moist soil, with hand watering if the rains fall short. |
| Black walnut | Not named on the Morton Arboretum's lists |
| Ground | Dry uplands and rocky ground |
| Native in | 2 states |

Gray pine is native in 2 states: [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA) and [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR). The states are the USDA PLANTS Database's records, with the native range read from the Jepson eFlora and the Gymnosperm Database.

## What our tools say

- [How fast it grows and how big it gets, by site](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the growth estimator
- [Whether it suits your zone, sun and soil](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the planting-site check
- [How far from a house, wires and a septic field](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=gray-pine&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree): the planting-distance tool
- [What grows with it in the wild and in a yard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the companion species tool
- [When to plant it where you live](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the planting-window tool
- [When it sheds pollen and bears cones, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=gray-pine): the bloom and fruit calendar
- [How to sow its seed, with dates for your place](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the seed sowing planner
- [How many to plant for a crop of seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=gray-pine:2): the pollination planner
- [Whether one you have can be moved, and what the move takes](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the transplant planner
- [How old one is, from its trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-age/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the tree age calculator
- [How a big one scores against the champion trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/big-tree/index.html.md?species=gray-pine): the big-tree measurer

## For the same ground, we grow

- [Chokecherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chokecherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus virginiana*): small tree, 20 to 30 feet, zones 2 to 10. Shares rocky ground in the wild.
- [More natives for this ground in the tree finder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/index.html.md?size=large-tree&sun=full&moisture=average)
- [Every companion of gray pine in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=gray-pine)

## Read from

Its figures come from Silvics of North America, the Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System, the Woody Plant Seed Manual, the USDA PLANTS Database, the Wildflower Center, Cal Poly's SelecTree, Oregon State University's Landscape Plants, Calscape, the Jepson eFlora, the Gymnosperm Database and the US Forest Service.