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Ponderosa pine
Habit (mature) · Walter Siegmund / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.5
Limited coverage
Ponderosa pine
Pinus ponderosa
The dominant pine of the western United States — a large, long-lived conifer that grows in a conical form to 60-125 feet in cultivation and far taller in the wild. Mature trunks wear distinctive bright yellowish-brown to reddish-orange bark furrowed into broad scaly plates, often smelling of vanilla or butterscotch on warm days. Dark yellow-green needles up to 10 inches long crowd the branch ends in bundles of three, and the species is highly drought- and deer-tolerant once established.
Native: 16 US states + 1 CA province
Review: Source-backed
Climate fit: moderate (62/100)
Focal point
Structure
Light
Full sun
Water
Moderate water
Mature size
720-1500" tall · 360" apart
Hardy in zones
3a-7b
brutally cold to cold winters
Summer heat range
Cool-Warm
cool to warm summers Interim Plotwright tier until the plant AHS range is authored.
Native in Illinois
No
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Native across 17 US states and Canadian provinces — a wide-ranging part of North America's plant communities.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Cold hardiness
Now
Zone 6b
USDA
Chicago, IL · 1991-2020 average annual coldest day
Source: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer
Well-suited
2050
Zone 7b
Plotwright
Your zone + climate-model shift · SSP3-7.0 (regional rivalry)
Marginal
In plain terms: cold winters — coldest nights typically around -3°F.
✓→⚠
Well-suited today, but likely marginal by 2050.
Heat tolerance
Loading current AHS heat-zone and plant heat-fit data at your coordinates…
Where this plant fits
Suitable across 34 ecoregions — 26 climate-resilient through 2070 · 8 suited today. Best matches first.
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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Arizona Mountains forests
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Blue Mountains forests
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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands
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Central Tallgrass prairie
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Central-Southern Cascades Forests
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Colorado Rockies forests
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Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland
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Eastern Canadian Forest-Boreal transition
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Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). Retrieved 2026, June 5, from https://plotwright.garden/plants/ponderosa-pine
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited — 18 source-backed.
Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder
Botanical research database
Backs 17 fields
Identity
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Wikimedia Commons
Photo · CC BY 2.5
Backs 1 field
Image
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database
Botanical research database
Community photos
The photos above are our reviewed reference set, curated for accuracy.
Plotwright
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