I hope I am posting this for appreciation, not for ID, but I'd appreciate knowing if I have come up with the wrong ID. Pinus parviflora Glauca Group, Japanese White Pine. This is growing in Queen Elizabeth Park, on the lawn east of the street parking parallel to Cambie. It has five needles in the clusters; cones top out at 9 cm, most shorter than that.
It looks OK, though 9 cm is outside of the normal cone size range (5-7 cm), I wonder if that specimen may be of hybrid origin, perhaps a backcross Pinus parviflora × Pinus × hunnewellii (i.e., Pinus parviflora × [Pinus parviflora × Pinus strobus]).
Nothing to compare to Wendy's photos, but we all have to start somewhere. This is my Pinus parviflora 'Japanese white pine' this morning in my garden.
I saw the Pinus parviflora Glauca Group at UBCBG today. I took photos, but they're not any better than the ones I included eight years ago at the end of this posting: August in UBCBG I measured some cones today at 8 cm.
Checked out my own cone collection, I've got one or two at 8 cm long as well; since green cones are slightly larger (they shrink a bit on drying), 9 cm is likely OK for pure P. parviflora after all.
