Lodgepole pine
The thin-barked pine covering 80% of Yellowstone's forest, some of whose cones only open in the heat of a fire.
Lodgepole pine at a glance
Pinus contorta var. latifolia LOJ-pohl pine; Pinus contorta is PY-nus kon-TOR-tuh
- Type
- Plant · conifer
- Diet
- Producer
- Size
- Can reach about 75 feet tall, roughly as high as a seven-story building, on a thin, straight trunk.
- Conservation
- Not federally listed. NPS reports lodgepole pine forest covers roughly 80 percent of Yellowstone National Park, making it the dominant tree there.
Eats sunlight, water, soil nutrients
Like every conifer, it makes its own food by photosynthesis. Its needles grow in bundles of two — NPS calls it the only pine in Yellowstone with needles bundled that way.
Is it safe to touch?
The tree itself is harmless — no spines, no poison, safe to stand under. Its bark is thin, though, so a burned stand can drop dead limbs and snags; stay on the trail in old burn areas.
Pick up a fallen lodgepole pine cone in Yellowstone and try to pry it open with a thumbnail. Some won’t budge, no matter how old and brown and dead they look. They aren’t dead. They’re waiting.
Those cones are serotinous, sealed shut with resin, and the only thing that opens them is heat. NPS describes the mechanism plainly: the resin melts in the heat of a fire, and the seeds fall out onto the ground the fire just cleared. A lodgepole pine forest can stand for a century looking finished, its cones locked tight overhead, and still be holding the next forest in reserve. The tree that dies in the burn is often the one that plants the replacement.
That is roughly what happened across more than 3,212 square kilometers of Yellowstone in 1988, in a scorched, uneven mosaic of severely burned, lightly burned, and unburned ground. NPS reports that within a few years, the burned patches had filled back in with young lodgepole pine. Walk any of that regrown forest today — and in a park that is about 80 percent lodgepole pine, you likely are — and you’re standing in a stand that is, in a sense, still finishing what the fire started.
Did you know?
- Some lodgepole pine cones pop open only in the heat of a fire, scattering their seeds across the newly cleared forest floor.
- The log walls of Yellowstone's Old Faithful Inn are built from lodgepole pine.
- Native peoples used its tall, straight trunks to build tipi and lodge frames, which is how the tree got its name.
Common questions
Why do some lodgepole pine cones need fire to open?
Those cones are sealed shut with resin. NPS says the resin melts in the heat of a fire, and the seeds fall onto the cleared, sunny ground left behind — good conditions for a new forest.
How tall does a lodgepole pine get?
Up to about 75 feet, on a thin, straight trunk, according to NPS.
How do you tell a lodgepole pine from Yellowstone's other pines?
Count the needles. NPS says it's the only pine in the park with needles bundled two to a sheath.
Did the 1988 Yellowstone fires wipe out the lodgepole pine forest?
NPS reports that within a few years of the 1988 fires, the burned ground had filled back up with young lodgepole pine seedlings.