PlantFiles: Limber Pine, Rocky Mountain White Pine, Limbertwig
Pinus flexilis

This pine tree can get up to about 5o ft. high with a 3 ft. diameter trunk. The mature trees have dark brown to black bark that is split by deep furrows while the younger trees have whitish gray and smooth bark. The yellow-brown cones are columnar in shape and don't have any prickles on the scales but have a blunt pointed tip. The scales are thick and rounded. The long pointed, dark green needles have silver-white lines on them, come bunched in about five to a bundle and are about 3.5" long. This pine occures in nature in the range of 7500-10,000 ft elevation and mostly in Spruce-fir forests and less often in Ponderosa forests. The trunk is fairly short and the crown is branched out widely with flexible, drooping, plumelike branches. The elk and deer browse the foliage and the squirrels eat the seeds. Amongst other places in Arizona, one can find this tree near Willow Springs Lake along with it also being endemic to CA, CO, ID, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT and WY in the USA, and in Canada it is native to AB and BC.
Compared to the Southwestern White Pine (Pinus strobiformis), the Limber Pine has wider cones with blunt tips, the silvery lines on the needles and the ends of the branches droop.

Is there a more attractive pine? White and green striped needles, needles that are soft and don't bite, and outer bark that's smooth like a young aspen. Looks blue from a distance, what a great tree. These trees love Reno, its nice to see them becoming more mainstream. I gave my sister a 6 ft. Vanderwulf 4 years ago and after following my advice of snapping off the new candles she's been able to keep her tree absolutely perfect in shape, nice and full and still 6 ft to this day.

This tree can reach 60' and has a neat dark gray, deeply furrowed bark.

Have one planted in Raleigh, NC and it is doing well. However, it is planted on the north slope of a hill so it does not get full sun all day as I doubt a mountain tree like this would survive it. Gorgeous bluish needles and very interesting branching make it worthwhile to plant.