Pinus latteri is a medium-sized to large tree, reaching 25–45 metres (82–148 feet) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m (5 ft).

The bark is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, and thin and flaky in the upper crown.

They open to 6–8 cm broad, often some time after maturity or following heating by forest fires, to release the seeds.

Pinus latteri is closely related to Sumatran pine (Pinus merkusii), which occurs further south in Southeast Asia in Sumatra and the Philippines; some botanists treat the two as conspecific (under the name P. merkusii, which was described first), but the Sumatran pine differs in shorter (15–20 cm) and slenderer (under 1 mm thick) leaves, smaller cones with thinner scales, the cones opening at maturity, and seeds only half the weight.

It grows in the mountains of southeastern Burma, northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Guangxi Province and Hainan island of China.