Lacebark Pine; Baipi Song
Pinus bungeana · Pinaceae · 백송
How to spot it
Characterized by white patchwork-like mottled bark revealed after peeling, a habit of growing with multiple trunks, and fragrant needles.
(original photo, new tab)Bark · Photo Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova · CC BY-SA 4.0 
(original photo, new tab)Bark · Photo Yongxinge · CC BY-SA 3.0
Look
- Leaves
- Stiff, flat, sharp-tipped needles (5 to 10 cm long, 2 mm wide) in bundles of three, with fine teeth on the edge; they smell of turpentine when rubbed.
- Flowers
- Pollen cones gather in yellow cylinders, and seed cones are yellowish green; neither is ornamental.
- Fruit
- Yellowish-brown egg-shaped cones (3.8 to 6.4 cm long, 3.8 to 5.1 cm wide).
- Bark
- Young trees have smooth gray bark; after about 10 years it peels in flakes, revealing mottling in white, olive, pale purple and silver.
Where it grows
- Native to
- Native to central and northern China.
- Ecology
- A host plant for imperial moth larvae, and attracts moths and pollinating insects.
Famous Lacebark Pine; Baipi Song trees in Korea
- Lacebark Pine of Jae-dong, SeoulNatural Monument No. 8 · about 600 years · Jae-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul
- Lacebark Pine of Jogyesa Temple, SeoulNatural Monument No. 9 · about 500 years · Sujong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul
- Lacebark Pine of Songpo, GoyangNatural Monument No. 60 · about 250 years · Deogi-dong, Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do
- Lacebark Pine of Sindae-ri, IcheonNatural Monument No. 253 · about 230 years · Baeksa-myeon, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do
- Lacebark Pine of Yonggung-ri, YesanNatural Monument No. 106 · about 200 years · Sinam-myeon, Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do