Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana)

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Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.)

Identifying Characters: The curved and highly persistent cones, the northern habitat, and the short needles in bundles of 2 are all distinctive characters of Jack Pine.

Similar Species: Red Pine occurs in some of the same areas as Jack Pine. The curved cones are diagnostic for Jack Pine, however. In addition the needles of Red pine are much longer than those of Jack Pine (4 to 6 inches long for Red Pine, less than 2 inches for Jack Pine).

Measurements: Mature trees about 70 feet tall, although some individuals are much smaller, and a few almost shrubby.

Cones: Cones 1 to 2 inches long, elongate and pointed at the apex, and usually distinctively curved; cones very persistent, sometimes for several years; cone scales with a minute apical spine.

Needles: Needles in bundles of 2, from 1 to 1.5 inches long; needles stiff and dark green.

Bark: Bark dark gray to red-brown, thin, irregularly divided into narrow, rounded connected ridges breaking on the surface into closely packed scales.

Native Range: The major portion of the Jack Pine range is in Canada where its northern boundary extends eastward from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories across the country to Cape Breton Island, NS. The range then extends southwest through Maine, New Hampshire, northern New York, central Quebec and northern Ontario, Michigan, extreme northwest Indiana, northeast Illinois, then northwest through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, central Alberta, to extreme northeast British Columbia.

Within its range, Jack Pine is widely but not continuously distributed. In Canada it is most abundant in Ontario, and in the United States, the largest acreages are in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The only significant artificial extensions of the jack pine range have been on strip-mined areas in the central and northeastern States and on the sand hills of Nebraska. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Jack Pine is primarily a boreal species and typically grows in poor, sandy soils.