July 24, 2019
White Pines are my favorite trees. Eastern white pine forests once covered much of Minnesota but only a small percentage of old-growth forests remain. Fortunately, there are still white pines around and you can recognize them easily: often they tower over the other trees around them. The branches grow in whorls, separated by blank spaces. Each year of growth adds a whorl, so if you count them you can determine the average age of the tree! If you get close, you will see that the needles grow in bundles of five. This is why the white pine became the symbol of the Native American League of Five Nations. They called it the Tree of Peace, and I definitely agree that gazing up to the high branches of a white pine will give you a peaceful feeling.
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