Twigs and buds are glabrous. Flowers are white with an unpleasant odor. Fruit has a rosy cast to the cone. Seeds are red and ripen in September or October. Tree is often multi-stemmed.
Foliage is bloomy and finely hairy beneath.
May and June flowers are followed by rosy fruit in September or October. It occurs singly or in groups in the eastern half of the state, principally in the northeastern section. Moving southward toward the Ohio River it becomes rare, as it was almost completely removed from the original forests by lumbering. Miss Honeybee' is smaller in statue and has yellow flowers. Greenish to white in color, the leaves are pubescent and covered by a single-keeled scale that leaves a distinct scar encircling the twig.