A captive specimen much loved by travel photographers [submitted by M.P. Frankis].
Common Names
Italian stone pine (1), stone pine; Mediterranean stone pine; (obsolete): Umbrella pine.Taxonomic notes
A very distinct pine, placed in Sect. Pinea, subsect. Pineae, in which it is the only species; the section also includes subsect. Pinaster, which has similar foliage but very different cones (see e.g. P. pinaster, P. canariensis, P. brutia).Description
A tree 12-25(35) m tall, trunk often short and commonly slightly sinuous. Crown highly distinctive (shape shared only by P. nelsonii of NE Mexico), globose and shrubby when young, later domed and becoming very broad low-rounded with age; not conic except in first two years from seed; with long branches rising at 30°-60° above horizontal; branch tips upswept to vertical. Bark thick, plated, deeply fissured, red-brown to orange with blackish edges to the plates. Shoots usually uninodal, very rarely multinodal on vigorous young trees; moderately stout, yellow-buff, rough with persistent decurrent scale-leaf bases. Buds ovoid-acute, 7-20 mm, with red-brown scales with long free tips revolute and fringed with white hairs. Adult leaves mid-green, retained for 2-4 years, with a persistent 1-1.5 cm sheath, in fascicles of two, 10-18(28) cm long, about 1.5 mm thick, with serrulate margins and fine lines of stomata on both faces. The juvenile leaves are glaucous, 1.5-4cm long, and continue to be grown for 3-10 years, mixed with the first adult leaves from the third year. Cones on short stout stalks, symmetrical, broad ovoid to globose, 8-12(15) cm long, 5-11(12) cm broad when closed, resembling a children's comic idea of a hand-grenade (!); green, ripening shiny chestnut-brown in April three years after pollination (the longest maturation period of any pine). The scales are broad, thick, woody, very stiff; the apophysis is bulbous, 15-20 × 15-20 mm, smoothly rounded; due to the three-year maturation, the dorsal grey-buff umbo is double, with an inner umbo (first year's growth) and a concentric outer umbo (second year); the inner umbo has a very short stout reflexed mucro. The seeds are pale brown thickly covered with a black soot-like powder, 15-20 × 10 mm with a loosely attached vestigial 3-8 mm yellow-buff wing. The cones open on ripening or up to a year later, invariably shedding all the infertile basal scales to allow the fertile scales to open more widely; the large seeds are dispersed by birds, mainly Cyanopica cyanus (azure-winged magpie), and in the last 6,000+ years, by Homo sapiens (Man; see 'Ethnobotany'), which has considerably extended the pine's distribution.Range
Prior to the anthropogenic range expansions of the last few thousand years it was probably confined to the Iberian Peninsula, the only area where it is found away from ancient trade routes (1). It is said to be"impossible to determine its natural range" (Barbéro et al., in 2). The species is an archaeophyte (unrecorded introductions by early man) throughout the Mediterranean, and more recently has been naturalised in South Africa (Cape prov.) and in other regions with Mediterranean climates (1, 2). USDA hardiness zone 8.Big Tree
The largest recorded in Italy is 35 m tall with a dbh of 204 cm; it is in Scuto, Calabria, Delianuova, RC (3).Oldest
Not a very long-lived tree, rarely exceeding 150 years.Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
The first pine used and cultivated by man, its edible seeds have been harvested for perhaps half a million years or more, and the tree planted for them for well over 6,000 years (possibly double this or more); it was introduced from Spain to as far east as Israel and Georgia on the Black Sea coast long before historical records were kept."[S]eeds of this pine have been used as food by humans since prehistoric times and were widely traded" (Barbéro et al., in 2). Theophrastus (c.372-287 BC) recorded it as 'domestic pine.' Research into dating of seed shells in prehistoric archaeological sites would be valuable in helping to determine the anthropogenic spread of the species, but does not appear to have been carried out to any extent. It is still extensively cultivated throughout the Mediterranean area. The richly flavoured seeds are essential for many Portugese, Spanish and Italian recipes.The timber is used occasionally, but the trees are normally preserved for their value as a food source.
Observations
Abundant in S Portugal and the adjoining Marismas area of the Guadalquivir River basin in SW Spain, where it forms extensive forests.Remarks
A famous tree at Ravello near Napoli in Italy can be seen photographed in virtually every European holiday brochure!Citations
(1) M.A. Rikli, Das Pflanzenkleid der Mittelmeerländer, 1943, cited in Mirov 1967.(2) Richardson 1998.
(3) CORPO FORESTALE DELLA STATO, a listing of big trees in Italy.
This page was mostly compiled by Michael Frankis, 27 January 1999.
[Pinus] [Pinaceae] [home]
This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/pi/pin/pinea.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 7-Apr-1999