Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus
The Crown reserved every trunk above 24 inches for the Royal Navy. The colonists, predictably, took it personally.
Surveyors blazed a “broad arrow” mark into the bark of any tree the king claimed. New England colonists, who needed those same trees for their own sawmills, took it personally. The Pine Tree Riot of 1772, three years before Lexington, saw New Hampshire millers beat a royal sheriff with switches. The white pine was on the Bunker Hill flag for a reason.
