page_title: Pinus albicaulis
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Pinus albicaulis / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Pinus albicaulis English: Whitebark Pine near Crystal Lake.
context_page_description: Pinus albicaulis, known by the common names whitebark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, Pacific Coast Ranges, and Rocky Mountains from Wyoming northwards. It shares the common name "creeping pine" with several other plants.
  The whitebark pine is typically the highest-elevation pine tree found in these mountain ranges and often marks the tree line. Thus, it is often found as krummholz, trees growing close to the ground that have been dwarfed by exposure. In more favorable conditions, the trees may grow to 29 meters in height.
context_section_description: The whitebark pine is an important source of food for many granivorous birds and small mammals, including most importantly the Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana), the major seed disperser of the pine. Clark's nutcrackers each cache about 30,000 to 100,000 seeds each year in small, widely scattered caches, usually under 2 to 3 cm (³⁄₄ to 1 ¹⁄₄ in) of soil or gravelly substrate. Nutcrackers retrieve these seed caches during times of food scarcity and to feed their young. Cache sites selected by nutcrackers are often favorable for germination of seeds and survival of seedlings. Those caches not retrieved by the time the snow melts contribute to forest regeneration. Consequently, whitebark pine often grows in clumps of several trees, originating from a single cache of two to 15 or more seeds.
  Other animals also depend upon the whitebark pine. Douglas squirrels cut down and store whitebark pine cones in their middens. Grizzly bears and American black bears often raid squirrel middens for whitebark pine seeds, an important pre-hibernation food. Squirrels, northern flickers, and mountain bluebirds often nest in whitebark pines, and elk and blue grouse use whitebark pine communities as summer habitat.
  Fallen needles under these trees serve as beds that are used by deer and wild sheep seeking shelter during stormy weather.
caption: The whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis, at Mount Rainier National Park
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