# Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis)

> Whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis: its height and zones, when it sheds pollen and bears cones, 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/whitebark-pine/

![Three dark purple whitebark pine cones among bundles of needles at a branch tip, mountains behind](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/whitebark-pine-1000.jpg?v=3b922094 "Whitebark pine cones in Glacier National Park, Montana. On favorable sites it has a life span of 500 years or more.")
*Photo: GlacierNPS, [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWhitebark_Pine_%28Pinus_albicaulis%29_%2843741434751%29.jpg) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWhitebark_Pine_%28Pinus_albicaulis%29_%2843741434751%29.jpg))*

Medium tree, 20 to 50 feet where planted, zones 2 to 7; full sun or part shade; dry or average ground.

We do not grow whitebark 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 | Whitebark Pine |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | Alpine whitebark pine, creeping pine |
| Form | Medium tree |
| Height, feet | 20 to 50 where planted; up to 108 in its native stands |
| Spread, feet | Up to 20 |
| Zones | 2 to 7 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Dry or average ground |
| Growth | Slow |
| Leaves | Evergreen |
| Traits | Wildlife value, edible, erosion control |
| Pollen | May to August |
| Fruit | Cones, August to September |
| First crop | 20 to 30 years (large crops from 60 to 80) |
| Pollination | One bears; a second improves the crop. Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen. An isolated tree may go unpollinated, and trees grown from one bird's seed cache often pollinate one another or themselves. |
| Lifespan | Usually lives 500 years or more and can live 1,275 or more, and the oldest dated one reached 1,267. 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 | Rocky ground and dry uplands |
| Native in | 7 states |

Whitebark pine is native in 7 states: [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA), [Idaho](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ID), [Montana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MT), [Nevada](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NV), [Oregon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OR), [Washington](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WA) and [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY). The states are the USDA PLANTS Database's records, with the native range read from the Fire Effects Information System and Silvics of North America.

## What our tools say

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

## For the same ground, we grow

- [Hop Hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) (*Ostrya virginiana*): medium tree, 25 to 40 feet, zones 3 to 9. Shares rocky ground and dry uplands in the wild.
- [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) (*Celtis occidentalis*): large tree, 40 to 60 feet, zones 2 to 9. Shares rocky ground and dry uplands in the wild.
- [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.
- [Black Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus serotina*): large tree, 50 to 80 feet, zones 2 to 9. Shares dry uplands in the wild.
- [Bur Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bur-oak/index.html.md) (*Quercus macrocarpa*): large tree, 60 to 80 feet, zones 3 to 9. Shares dry uplands in the wild.
- [Pin Cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pin-cherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus pensylvanica*): small tree, 15 to 40 feet, zones 2 to 7. Shares rocky ground in the wild.
- [Every companion of whitebark pine in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=whitebark-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, Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research and the International Tree-Ring Data Bank.