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Hidakasanmyaku Erimo Tokachi NP, Hokkaido
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Hokkaido’s wild Kita-goyō pine is confined to 2 separated regions: the Oshima Peninsula and the Hidaka Mountains. Horoman preserves the Hidaka stand, designated a National Natural Monument in 1943.
At many other sites, this pine grows sparsely on poor ridges; at Horoman, it dominates an entire hillside. That broad sweep of trees—not just a scattering of summit pines—is a striking feature of the stand.
The clue is in “goyō”: Kita-goyō means “northern five-needle pine,” and its needles grow in bundles of 5. Familiar red and black pines, by contrast, have just 2 needles per bundle.
The cold-loving Ezo pika is often associated with rocky mountain slopes, but a habitat near the pine-forest memorial sits just 50 m above sea level along the Horoman River—an unusually low-altitude outpost.
Beside the pine-site monument, a small path leads down to a gorge of Horoman peridotite. Red-purple bands formed as garnet broke down, evidence that this rock once lay 50–60 km beneath Earth’s surface.
A Hokkaido education guide describes the grove’s goyomatsu as 150–200 years old. Prefectural foresters also document a tree about 60 cm across at chest height—an impressive trunk for a mountain pine.
