Flower color: yellow / Flower characteristics: inconspicuous and not showy; spring flowering
Fruit shape: oval / Fruit length: 3 to 6 inches; 1 to 3 inches / color: brown; red / does not attract wildlife.
Bark is thin and easily damaged from mechanical impact; droop as the tree grows, and will require pruning for vehicular or pedestrian clearance beneath the canopy; not particularly showy; should be grown with a single leader; no thorns. Susceptible to breakage either at the crotch due to poor collar formation, or the wood itself is weak and tends to break.
When looking for a small, picturesque specimen Pine for a landscape, search no more. One of the best specimens in any landscape, Japanese White Pine is a pleasure to behold with attractive foliage in all seasons. Set it off in the landscape with a low ground cover beneath or locate it in the lawn, but keep the grass cleared away from the thin-barked trunk. Japanese White Pine should be grown in full sun on well-drained soil with adequate moisture. The trees are salt-tolerant, and tolerate moderate drought and moist, clay soil.
Cultivars include: ‘Brevifolia’, upright, narrow tree, sparsely branched, blue/green foliage in tight bundles; and ‘Glauca’, available in nurseries, greenish foliage with a touch of silver, wide-spreading tree, 45 feet high or more. [1]
Range
Korea (Ullung Island) and Japan. Type variety in central W Honshu (southward from Fukushima Prefecture, mainly on Pacific Ocean side), Shikoku and Kyushu, growing at 200-1800 m elevation. Var. pentaphylla in S Hokkaido and N to central Honshu (in C Honshu mainly on Japan Sea side), growing on sunny rocky slopes at from 60-800 m elevation in Hokkaido, and 300-2500 m in Honshu (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). Along with another white pine, P. koraiensis, it is the characteristic pine is subalpine areas of Japan; these two pines probably covered much of the Honshu coastal area during the Pleistocene. [3]
