Scientific Name
Pinus resinosa ‘Red Pine’
The red pine is a two-needle pine, with needles growing in bundles of two, and has a cold climate distribution across the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, along with the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. In its native habitat, red pine typically grows with a very straight trunk to more than 100 feet tall, though in cultivation it is unlikely to exceed 70 feet. The sole red pine on the Colorado champion tree list is 67 feet tall.
Red pine is not commonly grown in this region because, even before the climate became somewhat warmer, summers here were already near the upper limit of what the tree could tolerate. Fortunately, Colorado does not expose it to another major stressor: high humidity. It is far happier in the North Country, where temperatures below minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit are not uncommon and trees may live for 500 years or more.
Red pine needles are four to six inches long, which is also the needle length of the much more common Austrian pine, another two-needle pine found in this region. One way to distinguish between the two species is by bending the needles. Red pine needles snap cleanly when bent, while Austrian pine needles fold over instead. The bark of red pine has a reddish cast, though that color often fades on the lower trunk with age. On older trees, the reddish coloring is more noticeable on the upper branches.