White Pine Trees are large, up to 70 m high. It grows in closed groups of trees and has a short, open crown. Needles occur in bunches of five and are up to 10 cm long. They are bluish-green in colour with a whitish tinge and the edges are very finely toothed.
The cones are tube-shaped when closed and are up to 25 cm long. They grow on a 2 cm stalk. The seeds have wings that are 3 cm long. When the trees are immature, the bark is smooth and grayish-green. It turns darker as it gets older and forms vertical grooves, with small scaly plates. It is commonly found in all areas of the south coast, and the adjacent mainland coast.
Western white pine is susceptible to white pine blister rust, which causes portions of the tree to turn an orangy brown colour and die. The rust is difficult to control and prevents the tree from being of commercial importance. I only know of one tree on Vancouver Island that shows no signs of rust, it grows up by twin lakes, this tree is very large and quite impressive. It grows along the portage trail leaving twin lake, it’s one of the biggest white pine trees I have ever seen.