Eastern White Pine

Thank everyone for the wonderful information! I have learned a lot!! Thanks Little Tank, Lars, and Dag for getting me in the right direction!!! I like your Latin, Lars! Haha

Great...Dag. Veni-vidi-vici-style... :D awesome.

And you're welcome, J. It's been fun.

I see what you mean. That page is about a dwarf white pine cultivar, which only gets 20 feet high, and wouldn't be in a big stand. But at that link your point is that the mature cones look just like native Pinus strobus cones, and the immature cones look just like yours. I learned something: I think of immature Pinus strobus cones as looking like this: http://www.nhptv.org/wild/images/whitepi.... Even though the needles are oddly short for Pinus strobus, those photos, plus the fact that the cones are on half-inch stalks, and most important, have five needles and exist in a big stand in a part of the country where they are common lend creedance to Dag's ID of the native Pinus strobus. If the elder of these trees are head and shoulders above anything else, I'd agree with Dag. White pines are the tallest trees we've got.

Look at the last photo to the right: http://www.metrofieldguide.com/portfolio...

@Dag: Are you sure? Could you provide a reference link? There has been quite some debate over the suggestion.

There were 5 needles per fascicle.

Thanks SO much for for your fantastic information!! I'll count the needles per fascicle when I get home. I doubt this is an imported tree, because this was a tree limb found on the ground. The limb was found amongst very tall pines, about 70-80ft tall.

J, cones from most pines, including limber pine, they'd be green if immature. The unopened mature cones really look like the limber pine that grows out West, as Lars suggested, but limber pine cones should be 3 to 6 inches. I found a limber pine that's often grown as an ornamental and was actually first sold in Jersey ('Vanderwolf's Pyramid') - seemed like a good lead and would explain the location, but that tree has 8-inch cones - obviously much to large. Really haven't found any other cones from US pines that look like this - again, except the limber pine, which should have much bigger cones (and 5 needles per fascicle - did you count them, by the way?).

Any chance this is an imported tree?

I believe the cones aren't fully mature, but that's just an assumption

Precisely.

If the needles are 2 inches, then the cones are quite tiny - 1/2 inch?

The needles were ~2 inches long.