Trees to 10m; trunk to 0.5m diam., straight, leaning landward in protected stands, or contorted and bent when not, or reduced to shrub form by wind shear and salt spray; mature crown irregularly rounded or flat. Bark evidently and irregularly furrowed, cross-checked into small, square or rectangular, orange-brown to purple-brown scaly plates. Branches spreading, often contorted. Leaves 2--7cm ´ 0.7--0.9(--1.1)mm, dark green, apex acute to broadly acute or blunt. Seed cones maturing and shedding seeds in 2 years, persistent or variously serotinous, strongly asymmetric, strongly recurved, often in whorls, proximal outer apophyses strongly domed.

Maritime fog forests, bogs, and dry foothills; 0--600m; B.C.; Alaska, Calif., Oreg., Wash.

Pinus contorta var. contorta is fire successional. It is mostly a low-quality tree for timber use.