![]() White pine can be an effective medicinal plant acting especially well on the respiratory system to sooth and clear phlegm. It also contains vitamin A and resveratrol which may have some anti-aging properties. ![]() That’s one of the primary reasons it’s so important in the Native American diet. It has 5 times the vitamin C content of lemons (by weight). The really surprising thing about Eastern White Pine is its vitamin C content. Eastern White pine has very small nuts, they can be eaten, but usually are too much effort to collect. Some species of pine have nuts inside the mature cones that are large enough to eat. I enjoy chewing on the new growth in the spring, it is not too resinous, and it is soft enough to chew. Native Americans were creative in their use of white pine, eating any parts of the tree that they could prepare to be palatable including young green pine cones. In fact all parts of the tree are non-toxic. Eastern White Pine also contains edible inner bark, as unpleasant as this sounds a number of Native American tribes ate this inner bark throughout the winter to prevent starvation. The tea has a surprisingly good flavor, it is bitter, resinous, and slightly sweet but most people end up adding additional sweetener. The nutritional and medicinal properties of the needles are best preserved by steeping the needles in hot water instead of boiling them, you can steep for as little as 15 mins or a long as a few days. The needles are edible and most commonly used to make a hot tea. It has no berries, or tubers, or large leaves, so why is it such and important edible plant? Because it gives foragers something to harvest in the winter. I refer to Eastern White Pine as a hidden wild edible because it is so large and common, but its edible components are not. ![]() Much of this information is also true of some other pine species but Eastern White Pine is a plant with well documented edible and medicinal uses.Įdibility and Culinary Use Pinus Strobus Eastern White Pine, needles and mature cone (Photo By: Keith Kanoti, Maine Forest Service, USA) Many people are surprised to know how important it was to the Native American diet. The edibility of Eastern White Pine is unknown by most. Although it is commonly planted as a landscape tree, Eastern White Pine grows very tall, often approaching 100′, some specimens have been measured to be over 150′. This particular species is a long lived tree, some exceptional specimens have been estimated to be almost 500 years old. The Pines (Genus: Pinus) are a prolific genus of trees and shrubs including slightly more than 100 species. Pinus Strobus Eastern White Pine, mature habit and sizeĮastern White Pine ( Pinus strobus) is a common native forest and landscape tree in the eastern half of the United States.
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