Jack Pine

Pinus banksiana

Hosts 11 caterpillars

Growing it

When	Flowers May to June; fruits August to September
Type	tree
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 4.5–6.5
Hardiness	zone 2–5
Mature height	15 m
Mature spread	4.5 m
Spacing	3 m
Years to maturity	20
Bloom	May–Jun
In bloom	May June
Fruit	Aug–Sep
Native to	AB, SK

needles about 3 cm long in bundles; a spreading, branching crown

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

171 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 39 herbarium specimens and 271 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 113 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 101 records, high confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 65 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 28 records, high confidence
Churchill River Upland north SK: 17 records, medium confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 15 records, medium confidence
Wabasca Lowland north AB: 10 records, medium confidence
Athabasca Plain north AB / SK: 5 records, low confidence
Hay River Lowland north AB: 5 records, low confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 4 records, low confidence
Tazin Lake Upland north AB / SK: 4 records, low confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 4 records, low confidence
Mid-Boreal Lowland central SK: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

12 documented relationships.

caterpillar host for

Acronicta impleta Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Acronicta impressa Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Acronicta oblinita Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Acronicta vulpina Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Buprestis nutalli Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Colourful Zale Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Euchlaena marginaria Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Herald Moth Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Jack Pine Budworm Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Oblique-banded Leafroller Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Pine Needle Sheathminer Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
The Laugher Specimen records from scan-bugs.org

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Inner bark, seeds, needles

Buying it

About $60–$150 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (large specimen tree); AB retail as of 2026