Medicinal Monday... the Majestic Eastern White Pine

The Eastern White Pine is one of the most quintessential trees of New England.  In the book, Reverence of Wood, Eric Sloane, who lived in Kent, Connecticut, writes about the White Pine as being one of the most important trees to early Americans. He noted that from it, people could produce paint, tar, turpentine, firewood, building materials, lampblack, tanbark, resin, and pitch.  

The white pine tree was among the first that colonists discovered and then coveted when they came to this country. Records show that almost every year after 1653, England received white pines from the colonies. By the 1690s their disappearance from the American landscape began to show. They became so popular for shipbuilding that King George III of England passed a law that restricted the use of any white pine with a 24-inch diameter or more for exclusive use by the British Navy. Like the Stamp Act and the Tea Act, this law regarding white pines was a catalyst for the Revolutionary War.  Long before the colonists settled in America, Native American people, especially in the northeast of the country found many uses for this monarch of the American forest.

About the Eastern White Pine

The scientific name for this tree is Pinus strobus and it is the largest conifer of the eastern and upper Midwest forests that can grow over 150 feet in height with a diameter of up to 40 inches. They can easily reach 200 years in age and one of the oldest has been recorded as 450 years old. The trunk of this tree is tall and cylindrical with pyramid-shaped crowns that are distinguished by distinctive plate-like branching. It's the only pine with five needles per group that emerge from buds at the end of or along the branches. White pine needles are slender and between two and five inches long giving the tree a soft appearance. When the tree is young, the greenish-gray bark is smooth, as it ages, the bark turns a brownish color and forms deep furrows. White Pines can grow in a variety of soil and is found across  Southern Canada from Manitoba to Newfoundland, in New England, and throughout the northern and eastern states from Minnesota and Northern Iowa and southward to Georgia and Alabama.

Medicinal Uses

Common medicinal uses were to treat coughs and colds as well as skin eruptions and sores.  For example, the Algonquin and the Iroquois made a poultice of wet tree bark and applied this mixture to the chest to relieve coughing while the Abnaki, Mohawk, and Micmac made a decoction of the bark and drank it to treat coughs. The Chippewa and Iroquois made a poultice of pine pitch and applied this mixture to cuts and wounds while the Delaware made a poultice of pitch to draw out poison from boils. They also made an infusion of twigs to treat kidney disorders and pulmonary diseases like Tuberculosis. 

The Iroquois made a decoction of raw bark and took it to treat rheumatism and also made a compound decoction to treat colds and coughs. The Iroquois also made a decoction of shaved knots to treat poison ivy, scabs, and skin eruptions. They also ate raw bark to alleviate stomach pains and cramps and to avoid typhoid. Another popular use was to use a decoction of leaves as a wash for babies and non-walking infants. Many communities made a powder from the wood and used it on chafed babies and on sores. 

The Menominee made an infusion of the bark to treat chest pain and they also used a poultice of bark to soothe wounds, sores, and ulcers. The Micmac used the sap to stop hemorrhaging and they also used the bark, leaves, and stems to treat the grippe and scurvy. 

The Mohegans made a poultice of sap to treat boils and abscess pains and also used a mixture of bark and sap to treat coughs, colds, and boils. The Montagnais boiled the sap from the tree and took it to treat sore throats and consumption. The Ojibwa used the dried leaves as an inhalant and would boil crushed leaves and use the steam to treat headaches and backaches. The Potawatomi used the pitch as a base for salve to treat a variety of skin problems and the Shinnecock would chew pitch to treat coughs.

Practical Uses

Many Native American communities would eat the inner bark of the white pine when food was scarce. In addition to this, many tribes used the pitch or resin from the wood and bark to caulk boats and canoes. Boughs of this tree were used on the ground or floor and covered with bedding and slept on. The wood was used for lumber, carving, building canoes, and kindling and fuel.

Did You Know...

Native American tradition holds that when the Five Nations composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca found themselves at war and looking for peace, they gathered under a towering white pine to establish the Great Peace Law. The tree became a symbol of peace with its branches providing shelter, its evergreen leaves representing enduring peace, and its needles growing in clusters of five a symbol of the unity of the five nations.

 It is the provincial tree for Ontario and the state tree of Michigan and Maine.

The tallest white pine is in Bolton New York measured at 174 feet.

Bald Eagles, Great Blue Herons, and Osprey often nest and perch in tall white pines that grow near the water.

Gray and red squirrels, deer, mice, and songbirds eat the seed.

The white pine weevil is the tree's greatest insect pest that affects timber quality and volume. 

Diseases, including white pine blister rust, red ring rot, root rot, wood decay, and certain needle fungi, cause losses in white pine stands. Such natural elements as snow, ice, and wind may also cause damage to white pine.