Eastern white pine is a member of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, and like all members of that group, the leaves ('needles') are in fascicles (bundles) of five, with a deciduous sheath. They are flexible, blue-green, finely serrated, and 5-13 cm long, and persist for usually about 18 months. The cones are slender, 8-16 cm long (rarely slightly longer) and 4-5 cm broad when open, and have scales with a rounded apex and slightly reflexed tip. The seeds are 4-5 mm long, with a slender 15-20 mm wing, and are wind-dispersed.

This species prefers well-drained soil and cool, humid climates, but also grows in boggy areas and rocky highlands. Its range is from the western Great Lakes to Newfoundland and to the southern Appalachians at higher altitudes.

During the age of sail, the tall trees with their high quality wood were valued as masts, and many trees were marked in colonial times with the broad arrrow, reserving them for the Royal Navy. An unusual large, lone, white pine was found in colonial times, in coastal South Carolina along the Black River (way south of its normal range), and the king's mark was put upon this particular tree, giving rise to the town, Kingstree, South Carolina.

Captain George Weymouth imported these trees to England in 1620 and attached his name to those trees harvested for masts. Eastern white pine is now widely grown in plantation forestry within its native area. Several cultivars have been developed for garden use, many of them dwarf with very slow growth.

Because the tree is somewhat resistant to fire, mature survivors are able to re-seed burned areas. In pure stands the trees usually have no branches on the lower half of the trunk. In mixed forests, this dominant tree towers over all others, including the large hardwoods. The White Pine Weevil (Pissodes strobi) and White pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), an introduced fungus, can damage these trees.

A specimen known as the 'Boogerman pine' in the Cataloochee Valley, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is, at 56.5m tall, the tallest tree in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. Before it lost its top in Hurricane Opal in October 1995, it was 63 m tall.

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