This soft pine species is from Japan. It has soft, bluish or grass green needles in bundles of 5 that are about 1 1/4 to 2.5 inches long that form brush-like tufts at the ends of branches. The bark like other white pines starts as smooth and gray but matures to dark gray and platy and then later to brown and scaly. The female cones are about 1.5 to 4 inches long, cylindrical with scales that spread out widely and remain about 6 to 7 years on trees. This pine does have an irregular habit with wide spreading branches, and it eventually develops a flat-topped head. It is slow growing. I've only seen a few at arboretums, estates, and professional landscapes, and it is sold only at larger, diverse nurseries or plant specialty nurseries, and it is expensive to buy. My biggest customer and plant enthusiast in southeast Pennsylvania has two young trees in her yard full of many uncommon plants.

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