Trees of Crater Lake National Park

You are here: Home > Natural History > Plants > Trees > Whitebark Pines of Crater Lake National Park

Whitebark Pines of Crater Lake National Park

The whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis, meaning white-stemmed pine) is a tree found at Crater Lake National Park generally above 6500 feet on exposed slopes in dry, rocky soils.

Ernest G. Moll, in his collection of poems about Crater Lake, wrote of the whitebark pine:

On this torn ridge he rooted, proud and free,

Battling the wild earth-forces for control;

Life granted not his dream of beauty, so he,

Majestically dying, reached his goal.

A Clark's Nutcracker tears into a Whitebark Pine cone, Crater Lake National Park, photo by Robert Mutch

This tree is easily identified by its whitish-gray bark and often twisted branches. Although Crater Lake National Park has no true timberline, whitebark pine forms the elfinwood or krummholz of timberline in many western mountain ranges.

Whitebark pine is a pioneer species colonizing subalpine habitats as the first tree. At the Crater Lake caldera, whitebark pine may have been the first tree to colonize the pumice slopes of old Mount Mazama within the first century following the climactic eruption. Whitebark pine is arranged in ribbons or bands along the contours of Cloudcap and other habitats along the caldera's edge. These sites represent slightly higher, rocky substrate for the survival of whitebark seedlings since exposed areas devoid of snow earlier in the year have a significantly longer growing season. [Where Have the Whitebark Pines Gone? - Steve Mark and Ron Mastrogiuseppe, 1993, Nature Notes From Crater Lake].

Nature Notes From Crater Lake