Pinus ponderosa

Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America.
Pinus ponderosa grows in various erect forms from British Columbia southward and eastward through 16 western U.S. states and has been introduced in temperate regions of Europe and in New Zealand. It was first documented in modern science in 1826 in eastern Washington near present-day Spokane (of which it is the official city tree). On that occasion, David Douglas misidentified it as Pinus resinosa (red pine). In 1829, Douglas concluded that he had a new pine among his specimens and coined the name Pinus ponderosa for its heavy wood. In 1836, it was formally named and described by Charles Lawson, a Scottish nurseryman. It was adopted as the official state tree of Montana in 1949.
Pinus ponderosa is a large coniferous pine (evergreen) tree. The bark helps distinguish it from other species. Mature to overmature individuals have yellow to orange-red bark in broad to very broad plates with black crevices. Younger trees have blackish-brown bark, referred to as "blackjacks" by early loggers. Ponderosa pine's five varieties, as classified by some botanists, can be identified by their characteristically bright-green needles (contrasting with blue-green needles that distinguish Jeffrey pine). The Pacific variety has the longest—7+3⁄4 inches (19.8 centimetres)—and most flexible needles in plume-like fascicles of three. The Columbia ponderosa pine has long—4+3⁄4–8 in (12–20.5 cm)—and relatively flexible needles in fascicles of three. The Rocky Mountains variety has shorter—3+1⁄2–5+3⁄4 in (9.2–14.4 cm)—and stout needles growing in scopulate (bushy, tuft-like) fascicles of two or three. The southwestern variety has 4+1⁄2–7+3⁄4 in (11.2–19.8 cm), stout needles in fascicles of three (averaging 2+3⁄4–3+1⁄2 in or 68.5–89 millimetres). The central High Plains variety is characterized by the fewest needles (1.4 per whorl, on average); stout, upright branches at narrow angles from the trunk; and long green needles—5+3⁄4–7 in (14.8–17.9 cm)—extending farthest along the branch, resembling a fox tail. Needles are widest, stoutest, and fewest (averaging 2+1⁄4–2+3⁄4 in or 56–71 mm) for the species.
The egg-shaped cones, which are often found in great number under trees, are 3–5 in (8–13 cm) long. They are purple when first chewed off by squirrels, but become more brown and spherical as they dry. Each scale has a sharp point.
Sources differ on the scent of P. ponderosa. Some state that the bark smells of turpentine, which could reflect the dominance of terpenes (alpha- and beta-pinenes, as well as delta-3-carene). Others state that it has no distinctive scent, while still others state that the bark smells like vanilla if sampled from a furrow. Sources agree that the Jeffrey pine is more strongly scented than the ponderosa pine. When carved into, pitch-filled stumps emit a scent of fresh pitch.
The National Register of Big Trees lists a ponderosa pine that is 235 ft (72 metres) tall and 27 ft (8.2 m) in circumference. In January 2011, a Pacific ponderosa pine in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon was measured with a laser to be 268 ft 4 in (81.79 m) high. The measurement was performed by Michael Taylor and Mario Vaden, a professional arborist from Oregon. The tree was climbed on October 13, 2011, by Ascending The Giants (a tree-climbing company in Portland, Oregon) and directly measured with tape-line at 268 ft 3 in (81.77 m) high. As of 2015, a Pinus lambertiana specimen was measured at 273 ft 9+1⁄2 in (83.45 m), which surpassed the ponderosa pine previously considered the world's tallest pine tree.
Pinus ponderosa was scientifically described and named by Charles Lawson working from information provided by David Douglas in 1836.
The taxonomy of the ponderosa pine is heavily disputed by botanists and foresters. As recently as 2013 Robert Z. Callaham writing a research paper for the US Forest Service claimed that it is a single species from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast divided into five subspecies. However, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS database (PLANTS) lists these as varieties as of 2025. In the World Plants database maintained by Michael Hassler only three varieties are recognized, one described in 2024. On the other hand the World Flora Online (WFO) lists just two varieties. While Plants of the World Online (POWO) lists four varieties, but separates out two other taxa recognized as varieties as species. Similarly to POWO Christopher J. Earle writes in the Gymnosperm Database that the ponderosa pine has three subspecies and recognizes two taxa as species. In the Flora of North America (FNA) three varieties are recognized.
Distributions of the subspecies in the United States are shown in shadow on the map. Distribution of ponderosa pine is from Critchfield and Little. The closely related five-needled Arizona pine (Pinus arizonica) extends southward into Mexico.
Before the distinctions between the North Plateau and Pacific races were fully documented, most botanists assumed that ponderosa pines in both areas were the same. In 1948, when a botanist and a geneticist from California found a distinct tree on Mt. Rose in western Nevada with some marked differences from the ponderosa pine they knew in California, they described it as a new species, Washoe pine Pinus washoensis. Subsequent research determined this to be one of the southernmost outliers of the typical North Plateau race of ponderosa pine. Its current classification is Pinus ponderosa var. washoensis.
An additional variety, tentatively named P. p. var. willamettensis, found in the Willamette Valley in western Oregon, is rare. This is likely just one of the many islands of Pacific subspecies of ponderosa pine occurring in the Willamette Valley and extending north to the southeast end of Puget Sound in Washington.
The subspecies of P. ponderosa can be distinguished by measurements along several dimensions:
Notes
Names of taxa and transition zones are on the map. Numbers in columns were derived from multiple measurements of samples taken from 10 (infrequently fewer) trees on a varying number of geographically dispersed plots. Numbers in each cell show calculated mean ± standard error and number of plots.
Pinus ponderosa is a dominant tree in the Kuchler plant association, the ponderosa shrub forest. Like most western pines, the ponderosa is generally associated with mountainous topography. However, it is found on banks of the Niobrara River in Nebraska. Scattered stands occur in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and in the Okanagan Valley and Puget Sound areas of Washington. Stands occur throughout low level valleys in British Columbia reaching as far north as the Thompson, Fraser and Columbia watersheds. In its Northern limits, it only grows below 4,300 feet (1,300 m) elevation, but is most common below 2,600 feet (800 m). Ponderosa covers 1 million acres (4,000 km), or 80%, of the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is found on foothills and mid-height peaks of the northern, central, and southern Rocky Mountains, in the Cascade Range, in the Sierra Nevada, and in the maritime-influenced Coast Range. In Arizona, it predominates on the Mogollon Rim and is scattered on the Mogollon Plateau and on mid-height peaks (6,000 to 9,300 feet; 1,800 to 2,800 m) in Arizona and New Mexico. Arizona pine (P. arizonica), found primarily in the mountains of extreme southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and northern Mexico and sometimes classified as a variety of ponderosa pine, is presently recognized as a separate species. Ponderosa pine are also found in the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, at elevations between 4,000 and 8,000 feet (1,200 and 2,400 m).
The fire cycle for ponderosa pine is 5 to 10 years, in which a natural ignition sparks a low-intensity fire. Low, once-a-decade fires are known to have helped specimens live for half a millennium or more. The tree has thick bark, and its buds are protected by needles, allowing even some younger individuals to survive weaker fires. In addition to being adapted to dry, fire-affected areas, the species often appears on the edges of deserts as it is comparatively drought resistant, partly due to the ability to close its leaf pores. It can also draw some of its water from sandy soils. Despite being relatively widespread in the American West, it is intolerant of shade.
Pinus ponderosa needles are the only known food of the caterpillars of the gelechiid moth Chionodes retiniella. Blue stain fungus, Grosmannia clavigera, is introduced in sapwood of P. ponderosa from the galleries of all species in the genus Dendroctonus (mountain pine beetle), which has caused much damage. Western pine and other beetles can be found consuming the bark. The seeds are eaten by squirrels, chipmunks, quail, grouse, and Clark's nutcracker, while mule deer browse the seedlings. American black bears can climb up to 12 feet up a ponderosa.
Various animals nest in the ponderosa pines, such as the piliated woodpecker.
Pinus ponderosa is affected by Armillaria, Phaeolus schweinitzii, Fomes pini, Atropellis canker, dwarf mistletoe, Polyporus anceps, Verticicladiella, Elytroderma needle cast, and western gall rust.
Pinus ponderosa is classed as a "wilding pine" and spreads as an invasive species throughout the high country of New Zealand, where it is beginning to take over, causing the native species of plants not to be able to grow in those locations. It is also considered a "weed" in parts of Australia.
Native Americans consumed the seeds and sweet inner bark. They chewed the dried pitch, which was also used as a salve. They used the limbs and branches as firewood and building material, and the trunks were carved into canoes. The needles and roots were made into baskets. The needles were also boiled into a solution to treat coughs and fevers.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, old-growth trees were widely used by settlers as lumber, including for railroads. Younger trees are of poor quality for lumber due to the tendency to warp.
Cultivated as a bonsai, ponderosas are prized for their rough, flaky bark, contorted trunks, flexible limbs, and dramatic deadwood. Collected specimens can be wildly sculpted by their environment, resulting in beautiful twisted trunks, limbs and deadwood. In the mountains they can be found growing in pockets in the rock, stunting their growth. The main challenge for this species in bonsai cultivation is the natural long length of its needles, which takes years of training and care to reduce.
This species is grown as an ornamental plant in parks and large gardens.
During Operation Upshot–Knothole in 1953, a nuclear test was performed in which 145 ponderosa pines were cut down by the United States Forest Service and transported to Area 5 of the Nevada Test Site, where they were planted into the ground and exposed to a nuclear blast to see what the blast wave would do to a forest. The trees were partially burned and blown over.
Pinus ponderosa is the official state tree of Montana. In a 1908 poll to determine the state tree, Montana schoolchildren chose the tree over the Douglas fir, American larch, and cottonwood. However, the tree was not officially named the state tree until 1949.