# Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana)

> Sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana: a large tree of 90 feet where planted, for zones 6 to 8, 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/sugar-pine/

![Tall sugar pines with straight, bare trunks and long level branches near their tops against a clear blue sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/sugar-pine-1000.jpg?v=fd006c66 "Sugar pines near the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park, California, on June 15, 2012. In its native forests it grows 100 to 230 feet tall.")
*Photo: S. Rae, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APinus_lambertiana_trees_Sequoia_NP.jpg))*

Large tree, 90 feet where planted, zones 6 to 8; full sun or part shade; dry or average ground.

We do not grow sugar 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 | Sugar Pine |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | California sugar pine, great sugar pine |
| Form | Large tree |
| Height, feet | 90 where planted; up to 274 in its native stands |
| Spread, feet | Up to 50 |
| Zones | 6 to 8 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Dry or average ground |
| Growth | Fast |
| Leaves | Evergreen |
| Traits | Wildlife value, erosion control |
| Pollen | May to August |
| Fruit | Cones, August to October |
| First crop | 40 to 80 years (good crops from about 150) |
| Pollination | One bears; a second improves the crop. Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen; pines standing alone tend to set less seed than pines in a group. |
| Lifespan | Can live 614 years, and the oldest dated one reached 435. Only a tiny share of trees has ever been ring-counted or cross-dated. |
| Black walnut | Not named on the Morton Arboretum's lists |
| Ground | Rich moist slopes and rocky ground |
| Native in | 3 states |

Sugar pine is native in 3 states: [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Nevada](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NV) 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 Silvics of North America, the Fire Effects Information System and Oregon State University.

## What our tools say

- [How fast it grows and how big it gets, by site](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=sugar-pine): the growth estimator
- [Whether it suits your zone, sun and soil](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=sugar-pine): the planting-site check
- [How far from a house, wires and a septic field](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=sugar-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=sugar-pine): the companion species tool
- [When to plant it where you live](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=sugar-pine): the planting-window tool
- [When it sheds pollen and bears cones, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=sugar-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=sugar-pine): the seed sowing planner
- [How many to plant for a crop of seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=sugar-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=sugar-pine): the transplant planner
- [How old one is, from its trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-age/index.html.md?species=sugar-pine): the tree age calculator
- [How a big one scores against the champion trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/big-tree/index.html.md?species=sugar-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 sugar pine in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=sugar-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, Oregon State University's Landscape Plants, Cal Poly's SelecTree, Calscape, the Wildflower Center and the Gymnosperm Database.