Description
The Southwestern White Pine is native to New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. It is quite an adaptable tree, while it loves moist areas it can also grow in sandy and rocky soils. It is more drought tolerant than many other conifers, including the eastern white pine. It is grown for privacy screens, specimen plantings and even Christmas trees.
Needles on the Southwestern white pine are a blue-green color, thin, soft and around 2-6″ in length. They grow in bunches (fascicle) of five needles and can persist for up to five years. The cones on the Southwestern White Pine are 2 1/2 – 9″ long. Both birds and squirrels consume the seeds on this grown in the cones. Bark on the southwestern white pine is smooth and silver when it is young but becomes thick and rough as the tree ages.
