Sugar Pine

Sugar Pine is a large coniferous tree in the pine family, native to the mountains of the Pacific coast of North America from Oregon south through California and into Baja California, Mexico. It is the tallest and largest pine species in the world, with mature trees reaching heights over 60 meters and carrying the longest cones of any conifer, often 40 to 50 centimeters in length. The tree gets its common name from the sweet resin that exudes from wounds in its bark, historically eaten by Native American peoples and early settlers as a sugar substitute. Sugar Pine grows in mixed coniferous forests, typically on well drained slopes at moderate to high elevations, and has suffered significant losses from the introduced fungal disease white pine blister rust.