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Taxonomy

Notes:

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Physical Description

Family Pinaceae:

Trees or rarely shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, monoecious. Branchlets often dimorphic: long branchlets with clearly spirally arranged, sometimes scalelike leaves; short branchlets often reduced to slow growing lateral spurs bearing dense clusters of leaves at apex. Leaves solitary or in bundles of (1 or) 2-5(-8) when basally subtended by a leaf sheath; leaf blade linear or needlelike, not decurrent. Cones unisexual. Pollen cones solitary or clustered, with numerous spirally arranged microsporophylls; microsporophyll with 2 microsporangia; pollen usually 2-saccate (nonsaccate in Cedrus, Larix, Pseudotsuga, and most species of Tsuga) . Seed cones erect or pendulous, maturing in 1st, 2nd, or occasionally 3rd year, dehiscent or occasionally indehiscent, with many spirally arranged ovulate scales and bracts; ovulate scales usually smaller than bracts at pollination, with 2 upright ovules adaxially, free or only basally adnate with bracts, maturing into seed scales. Seed scales appressed, woody or leathery, variable in shape and size, with 2 seeds adaxially, persistent or deciduous after cone maturity. Bracts free or adnate basally with seed scales, well developed or rudimentary, exserted or included. Seeds terminally winged (except in some species of Pinus) . Cotyledons 2-18. Germination hypogeal or epigeal. 2n = 24* (almost always) .

Ten or eleven genera and ca. 235 species: N hemisphere; ten genera (two endemic) and 108 species (43 endemic, 24 introduced) in China.

Species of the Pinaceae are among the most valuable and commercially important plants in the world. Most species are trees, and are often excellent sources of lumber, wood products, and resins; many are cultivated for afforestation and as ornamentals.^[1]

Genus Pinus:

Trees or shrubs aromatic, evergreen; crown usually conic when young, often rounded or flat-topped with age. Bark of older stems variously furrowed and plated, plates and/or ridges layered or scaly. Branches usually in pseudowhorls; shoots dimorphic with long shoots and short shoots; short shoots borne in close spirals from axils of scaly bracts and bearing fascicles of leaves (needles) . Buds ovoid to cylindric, apex pointed (blunt), usually resinous. Leaves dimorphic, spirally arranged; foliage leaves (needles) (1--) 2--5(--6) per fascicle, persisting 2--12 or more years, terete or ± 2--3-angled and rounded on abaxial surface, sessile, sheathed at base by 12--15 overlapping scale leaves, these (at least firmer basal ones) persisting for life of fascicle or shed after first season; resin canals 2 or more. Pollen cones in dense, spikelike cluster around base of current year's growth, mostly ovoid to cylindric-conic, tan to yellow, red, blue, or lavender. Seed cones maturing in 2(--3) years, shed early or variously persistent, pendent to ± erect, at maturity conic or cylindric, sessile or stalked, shedding seed soon after maturity or variously serotinous (not opening upon maturity but much later) ; scales persistent, woody or pliable, surface of exposed apical portion of each scale (apophysis) thickened, with umbo (exposed scale surface of young cone) represented by a scar (sometimes apiculate) or extended into a hook, spur, claw, or prickle; bracts included. Seeds winged or wingless; cotyledons (3--) 6--10(--18) . x =12.

Species ca. 100 (38 in the flora with 37 native and 1 widely naturalized) : widespread in north temperate and north tropical (mountainous) regions, North America, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, Eurasia (including 1 crossing equator in Sumatra), n Africa, Pacific Islands in Sumatra.

In many areas Pinus is a forest dominant, either early successional and thus weedy or often longer-lived and part of climax forest. Certain southern pines, especially fire successional species, have a "grass stage," i.e., the stem of the young seedling elongates little during the first several years and bears many long, curved leaves, the plant then reminiscent of a dense clump of grass.

Nomenclature used here, and to a very large degree the taxonomy, follows Elbert L.Little Jr. (1971), former Chief Dendrologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Much work is being done with problematic groups, particularly complexes in Pinus contorta, the pinyons, the bristlecone pines, and P . ponderosa and related taxa. Considerable chemotaxonomic and genetic data are available on the genus, but coverage is far from comprehensive. Therefore, the conservative approach used in this treatment emphasizes external morphology.

Pine (Pinus) has been adopted by Arkansas as the state tree. Southern pine (Pinus spp.) is the state tree of Alabama.^[2]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Pinus:

There are approximately 1,556 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: P. contorta latifolia · P. contorta murrayana · P. halepensis pithyusa · P. hwangshanensis transfluminea · P. monophylla californiarum · P. monophylla fallax · P. mugo pumilio · P. palustris neogigantea · P. pondersoa jeffreyi · P. radiata insignis · P. rigida typica · P. silvestris pannonica · P. sylvestris amurensis · P. sylvestris densiflora · P. sylvestris krylovii · P. sylvestris ursina · P. 'Gaelle Bregon' · P. 'Hélène Bregeon' · P. 'Holfordiana' · P. 'Jane Kluis' (Hybrid Pine) · P. 'Marie Bregeon' · P. abchasica · P. abies · P. abies f. erythrocarpa · P. acapulcensis · P. adunca · P. africana · P. ajanensis · P. alba var. arctica · P. albicaulis (Scrub Pine) · P. albicaulis 'Flinck' · P. albicaulis 'Nana' (Whitebark Pine) · P. albicaulis 'No. 3' · P. albicaulis 'Noble's Dwarf' · P. alopecuroides · P. altamirani · P. altissima · P. alvordensis · P. amamiana · P. amiltroni · P. andraei · P. aracanensis · P. arctica · P. aristata (Bristlecone Pine) · P. aristata 'Cecilia' · P. aristata 'Kohout's Mini' · P. aristata 'Sherwood Compact' (Sherwood Compact Pine) · P. aristata 'So Tight' · P. arizonica (Arizona Pine) · P. arizonica Engelm. var. arizonica (Arizona Pine) · P. arizonica Engelm. var. stormiae Martinez (Arizona Pine) · P. arizonica var. arizonica · P. arizonica var. cooperi · P. arizonica var. stormiae (Arizona Pine) · P. armandi · P. armandii (Davids Pine) · P. armandii 'Gold Tip' · P. armandii Franch. var. armandii · P. armandii var. armandii · P. armandii var. dabeshanensis · P. armandii var. mastersiana · P. armata · P. arolla · P. astecaensis · P. atenuata · P. atrovirens · P. attenuata (Knob-Cone Pine) · P. attenuatis (Knobcone Pine) · P. attenuradiata (Pine) · P. aucklandii · P. ayacahuite · P. ayacahuite Ehrenb. ex Schltdl. var. brachyptera Shaw · P. ayacahuite var. ayacahuite · P. ayacahuite var. veitchii · P. babarensis · P. baciano · P. backhousiana · P. baileyii · P. balfouriana (Foxtail Pine) · P. balfouriana 'Dwarf Form' · P. balfouriana austrina (Foxtail Pine) · P. balfouriana balfouriana (Foxtail Pine) · P. balfouriana subsp. austrina · P. balfouroides · P. balli · P. banatica · P. banksiana (Black Pine) · P. banksiana 'Arctis' · P. banksiana 'Chippewa' (Jack Pine) · P. banksiana 'Compacta' · P. banksiana 'Girards Weeper' (Jack Pine) · P. banksiana 'H.J. Welch' · P. banksiana 'Manomet' (Jack Pine) · P. banksiana 'Neponset' · P. banksiana 'Potters' (Jack Pine) · P. banksiana 'Schneverdingen' · P. banksiana 'Schoodic' · P. banksiana 'Uncle Fogy' · P. banksiana 'Wisconsin' · P. banksiana f. procumbens

Bibliography

• Bailey, D.K. 1970. Phytogeography and taxonomy of Pinus subsection Balfourianae. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 57: 210--249.
• Bailey, D.K. 1987. A study of Pinus subsection Cembroides I: The single-needle pinyons of the Californias and the Great Basin. Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 44: 275--310.
• Bailey, D.K. and F.G. Hawksworth. 1979. Pinyons of the Chihuahuan Desert region. Phytologia 44: 129--133.
• Cheng Wan-chün, Fu Li-kuo, Law Yu-wu, Fu Shu-hsia, Wang Wen-tsai, Chu Cheng-de, Chao Chi-son & Chen Chia-jui. 1978. Pinaceae. In: Cheng Wan-chün & Fu Li-kuo, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 7: 32-281.
• Critchfield, W.B. and E.L. Little Jr. 1966. Geographic Distribution of the Pines of the World. Washington. [U.S.D.A., Misc. Publ. 991.]
• Duffield, J.W. 1952. Relationships and species hybridization in the genus Pinus. Silvae Genet. 1: 93--97.
• Fowells, H.A. 1965. Silvics of Forest Trees of the United States. Washington. [Agric. Handb. 271.]
• Kurz,H. and R.K. Godfrey. 1962. Trees of Northern Florida. Gainesville.
• Little, E.L. Jr. and W.B. Critchfield. 1969. Subdivisions of the genus Pinus (pines). Washington. [U.S.D.A., Misc. Publ. 1144.]
• Mirov, N.T. 1967. The Genus Pinus. New York.
• Peattie, D.C. 1953. A Natural History of Western Trees. Boston.
• Perry, J.P.Jr. 1991. The Pines of Mexico and Central America. Portland.
• Preston, R.J. 1976. North American Trees (Exclusive of Mexico and Tropical United States), ed. 3. Ames.
• Price, R.A. 1989. The genera of Pinaceae in the southeastern United States. J. Arnold Arbor. 70: 247--305.
• Sargent, C.S. 1922. Manual of the Trees of North America (Exclusive of Mexico), ed. 2. Boston and New York. [Facsimile edition in 2 vols. 1961, reprinted 1965, New York.]
• Shaw, G.R. 1914. The Genus Pinus. Cambridge, Mass. [Publ. Arnold Arbor. 5.]
• Sudworth, G.B. 1908. Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope. Washington.
• Sudworth, G.B. 1917. The Pine Trees of the Rocky Mountain Region. Washington. [U.S.D.A. Bull. 460.]

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Notes

Contributors:

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed April 19, 2007.

Identifiers:

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1879996

Footnotes:

1. Liguo Fu, Nan Li, Thomas S. Elias & Robert R. Mill "Pinaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 4 Page 11. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Robert Kral "Pinus". in Flora of North America Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.