{"id":"id-002","license":"CC-BY-4.0","data":{"title":"Count the needles: ponderosa, lodgepole, western white","file":"/diagrams/id-002-count-pine-needles.svg","caption":"FA Exhibit ID-002. Count the needles: ponderosa, lodgepole, western white pine.","alt":"Three equal specimen panels traced from public-domain United States Forest Service plates. Pacific and Columbia ponderosa pine has needles in bundles of three. Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine has two needles per fascicle, rarely three. Western white pine has needles in bundles of five. The sheet warns that bundle count narrows an identification but does not complete a botanical key.","kind":"diagram","rights":"cc-by-4.0","depicts":"For three common western pines in the directory, needle count per bundle/fascicle gives a fast first separation: the Pacific/Columbia ponderosa pine review says bundles of three; the Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine review says two needles per fascicle (rarely three); the western white pine review says bundles of five","identifiableAddress":false,"exifGpsStripped":true,"derivation":"Morphology from USFS FEIS PINPONP, PINCONL and PINMOT. Specimens after Sudworth, Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope (USFS, 1908), public domain.","technicalReviewer":"Grayson Graham","lastVerified":"2026-08-25T00:00:00.000Z","sourceUrl":"https://research.fs.usda.gov/feis/species-reviews/pinponp"}}