Lodgepole pine

Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia (Engelmann) Critchfield

Trees to 46m; trunk to 0.8m diam., mostly straight and evenly tapering, or at or above timberline reduced to shrub form by wind shear; crown usually conic at maturity. Bark gray- to red-brown, not evidently furrowed, separating into loose plates. Branches mostly horizontally spreading, not ascending at tip. Leaves (4--)5--8cm ´ 1--2(--3)mm, yellow-green, apex narrowly acute to short-acuminate. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, then shedding seeds or variously serotinous, long-persistent, strongly asymmetric, mostly recurved, seldom whorled, mostly in 2s or solitary, mid and lower apophyses mostly much domed.

Low to high montane forests, often to timberline; 0--3500m; Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Pinus contorta var. latifolia is fire successional. It is the most wide-ranging and commercially utilized variety. Its poor self-pruning character makes it less desirable for lumber but adequate for mine timbers, fences, and pulpwood.

Lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta var. latifolia ) is the provincial tree of Alberta.