Common Names
Mountain pine.Taxonomic notes
A hybrid between P. mugo subsp. mugo and P. mugo subsp. uncinata (1); sometimes treated as a species in its own right, P. rotundata Link (2) or (mainly in older E European works) as P. uliginosa Neumann ex Wimmer. Additional synonyms: P. humilis Link; P. pseudopumilio (Willk.) Bech; P. obliqua Sauter (1).Description
A shrub or tree to 3-15 m. Foliage as subsp. mugo. Cones intermediate between subsp. mugo and subsp. uncinata, ± oblique, at least near the base, with rounded and hooked apophyses on the outer side of the cone (1).Range
Europe: Throughout most of the Alps and northern Carpathians from France to the Slovak Republic; small isolated populations in the Pyrenees and Massif Central, but absent from the Balkans and southern Carpathians (1). Occurs at high altitudes 1000-2300 m, and also in peat bog habitats as low as 200m in the NE of its range (1).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Remarks
Forms extensive hybrid introgression zones with no apparent barriers to hybridisation, which argues for the conspecificity of the parent taxa. Its occurrence in some areas beyond the range of one or the other of the parent subspecies (or even both) could be due to either long-distance pollen drift, and/or to the presence of both parents in purer forms at earlier times.Citations
(1) K.I. Christensen 1987. Taxonomic revision of the Pinus mugo complex and P. × rhaetica (P. mugo × sylvestris) (Pinaceae). Nordic J. Botany 7: 383-408.(2) R. Businský 1998. Pinus mugo agg. in former Czechoslovakia - taxonomy, distribution, hybrid populations and endangering. Zprávy Ces. Bot. Spolec. Praha 33: 29-52. [in Czech; English summary].
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/pi/pin/rotundata.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 28-Feb-1999