The Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora) is a pine in the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, native to Japan. It is also known as the Japanese five-needle pine (Pinus pentaphylla).
It is a coniferous evergreen tree, growing to 15–25 m in height and is usually as broad as it is tall, forming a wide, dense, conical crown. The leaves are needle-like, in bundles of five, with a length of 5–6 cm. The cones are 4–7 cm long, with broad, rounded scales; the seeds are 8–11 mm long, with a vestigial 2–10 mm wing.
This is a popular tree for bonsai, and is also grown as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens. The 'Adcock's dwarf' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Famous quotes containing the words japanese, white and/or pine:
“The Japanese say, “If the flower is to be beautiful, it must be cultivated.””
—Lester Cole, U.S. screenwriter, Nathaniel Curtis, and Frank Lloyd. Nick Condon (James Cagney)
“It’s all sorts of middle-aged white men in suits—forests of middle-aged men in dark suits. All slightly red-faced from eating and drinking too much.”
—Diane Abbott (b. 1953)
“How far men go for the material of their houses! The inhabitants of the most civilized cities, in all ages, send into far, primitive forests, beyond the bounds of their civilization, where the moose and bear and savage dwell, for their pine boards for ordinary use. And, on the other hand, the savage soon receives from cities iron arrow-points, hatchets, and guns, to point his savageness with.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)