Hope it succeeds.

How anyone can still consider that a variety of P. strobus is beyond me.

Resin

Here's one at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square PA.
There must at least one hardy clone!

Johnny

Pinus chiapensis
Planted in 1960, 47' high 51' crown spread

"Here's one at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square PA.
There must at least one hardy clone!

Johnny

Pinus chiapensis
Planted in 1960, 47' high 51' crown spread"

I'd strongly suspect it is mislabelled. One at Kew labelled "P. chiapensis" has typical P. strobus cones, not P. chiapensis cones (which are quite distinct).

Can you get a close-up pic of the cones on this tree?

Resin

Yep, it could be 'strobus' but one of that age would be much larger under typical conditions. I'll make a request for cones and/or pics.

Johnny

Given how tender it is, I doubt it too. Mine is very tender and is growing great this year, but I hope we don't get any severe freezes soon!

Well 2013 was a cone year at Longwood and I finally received a cone request!.....Resin, what's your opinion on the ID now?

Johnny

I think its just strobus Johnny, but we'll see what Resin says. My chiapensis grows continuously through the year and even has tender new shoots on it now. It is getting huge quickly though and seems to be big enough to survive severe freezes (I hope).

Other internet pictures appear to show a chunkier cone for P. chiapensis.

I'm having problems with links on this site not working, both ones provided by others and ones I'm attempting to provide. So, I will instead say if you go to

http://www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_chiapensis.php

there is a discussion of the taxonomy.

And a photo of a cone taken from a tree in a native stand.

Most likely Pinus ayacahuite, or possibly P. monticola or a hybrid P. ayacahuite x P. strobus.

Resin

Longwood tree and cones don't look like P. monticola; spacing of cone scales is like P. strobus.

"Longwood tree and cones don't look like P. monticola"

I've got some wild origin P. monticola which actually look quite similar - the species is very variable (more so than e.g. P. strobus). From some other pics that Johnny sent me, the base of the tree looks like it was mucked about with when young, so the crown shape isn't a good guide (no healthy white pine looks like that naturally!).

Resin

"Planted in 1960, 47' high 51' crown spread"

"From some other pics that Johnny sent me, the base of the tree looks like it was mucked about with when young"

1963 was a cold winter, so, maybe freeze damage to the bark?