Etymology[edit]
The modern English name "pine" derives from Latin
pinus, which some have traced to the Indo-European base
*pīt- ‘resin’ (source of English pituitary).
[3] Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs (from
Old Norse fura, by way of
Middle English firre). In some European languages, Germanic cognates of the Old Norse name are still in use for pines—in
Danish fyr, in
Norwegian fura/fure/furu,
Swedish fura/furu,
Dutch vuren, and
German Föhre—but in modern English,
fir is now restricted to
fir (
Abies) and
Douglas fir (
Pseudotsuga).
Taxonomy, nomenclature and codification[edit]
Pines are
gymnosperms. The genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters:
Distribution[edit]
Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere (see
List of pines by region) host some
native species of pines. One species (
Sumatran pine) crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S. In North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N.
Various species have been introduced to
temperate and
subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as
timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks and gardens. A number of such introduced species have become
invasive[5] and threaten native ecosystems.
Description[edit]
Pines are long-lived, and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the
Great Basin bristlecone pine,
Pinus longaeva. One individual of this species, dubbed "
Methuselah", is one of the
world's oldest living organisms at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the
White Mountains of California.
[7] An older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath
Wheeler Peak and it is now known as "
Prometheus" after the
Greek immortal.
[citation needed]
The
bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular "pseudo whorls", actually a very tight spiral but appearing like a ring of branches arising from the same point. Many pines are uninodal, producing just one such whorl of branches each year, from
buds at the tip of the year's new
shoot, but others are multinodal, producing two or more whorls of branches per year. The spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone scales is arranged in
Fibonacci number ratios.
[citation needed] The new spring shoots are sometimes called "candles"; they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then later turn green and spread outward. These "candles" offer
foresters a means to evaluate
fertility of the soil and vigour of the trees.
Foliage[edit]
Illustration of needles, cones, and seeds of
Scots pine (
Pinus sylvestris)
Pines have four types of
leaf:
- Seed leaves (cotyledons) on seedlings are borne in a whorl of 4–24.
- Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, are 2–6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green, and arranged spirally on the shoot. These are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer.
- Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, are small, brown and not photosynthetic, and arranged spirally like the juvenile leaves.
- Needles, the adult leaves, are green (photosynthetic) and bundled in clusters called fascicles. The needles can number from one to seven per fascicle, but generally number from two to five. Each fascicle is produced from a small bud on a dwarf shoot in the axil of a scale leaf. These bud scales often remain on the fascicle as a basal sheath. The needles persist for 1.5–40 years, depending on species. If a shoot is damaged (e.g. eaten by an animal), the needle fascicles just below the damage will generate a bud which can then replace the lost leaves.
A fully grown and freshly fallen female pine cone (
pinus strobus.)
Pines are mostly
monoecious, having the male and female
cones on the same tree, though a few species are
sub-dioecious, with individuals predominantly, but not wholly, single-sex. The male cones are small, typically 1–5 cm long, and only present for a short period (usually in spring, though autumn in a few pines), falling as soon as they have shed their
pollen. The female cones take 1.5–3 years (depending on species) to mature after
pollination, with actual fertilization delayed one year. At maturity the female cones are 3–60 cm long. Each cone has numerous spirally arranged scales, with two seeds on each fertile scale; the scales at the base and tip of the cone are small and sterile, without seeds. The seeds are mostly small and winged, and are anemophilous (wind-dispersed), but some are larger and have only a vestigial wing, and are
bird-dispersed (see below). At maturity, the cones usually open to release the seeds, but in some of the bird-dispersed species (e.g.
whitebark pine), the seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In others, the seeds are stored in closed ("serotinous") cones for many years until an environmental cue triggers the cones to open, releasing the seeds. The most common form of serotiny is pyriscence, in which a resin binds the cones shut until melted by a forest fire.
Ecology[edit]
Pines grow well in acid soils, some also on
calcareous soils; most require good soil drainage, preferring sandy soils, but a few (e.g.
lodgepole pine) can tolerate poorly drained wet soils. A few are able to sprout after forest fires (e.g.
Canary Island pine). Some species of pines (e.g.
bishop pine) need fire to regenerate, and their populations slowly decline under fire suppression regimens. Several species are adapted to extreme conditions imposed by elevation and latitude (e.g. Siberian dwarf pine,
mountain pine, whitebark pine, and the
bristlecone pines). The pinyon pines and a number of others, notably
Turkish pine and
gray pine, are particularly well adapted to growth in hot, dry
semidesert climates.
[citation needed]
The seeds are commonly eaten by birds, such as grouse, crossbills, jays, nuthatches, siskins, and woodpeckers, and by
squirrels. Some birds, notably the
spotted nutcracker,
Clark's nutcracker, and
pinyon jay, are of importance in distributing pine seeds to new areas. Pine needles are sometimes eaten by some
Lepidoptera (
butterfly and
moth) species (see
list of Lepidoptera that feed on pines), the
Symphytan species
pine sawfly, and
goats.
[citation needed]
Pine
pollen may play an important role in the functioning of
detrital food webs.
[8] Nutrients from pollen aid detritivores in development, growth, and maturation, and may enable fungi to decompose nutritionally scarce litter.
[8] Pine pollen is also involved in moving plant matter between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
[8]
Manners[edit]
Lumber and construction[edit]
Pines are among the most commercially important tree species valued for their timber and
wood pulp throughout the world. In temperate and tropical regions, they are fast-growing
softwoods that grow in relatively dense stands, their acidic decaying needles inhibiting the sprouting of competing hardwoods. Commercial pines are grown in
plantations for timber that is denser, more resinous, and therefore more durable than
spruce (
Picea). Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as furniture, window frames, panelling, floors, and roofing, and the
resin of some species is an important source of
turpentine.
Because pines have no insect- or decay-resistant qualities after logging, they are generally recommended for construction purposes as indoor use only (ex. indoor drywall framing). This wood left outside can be expected to last no more than 12–18 months depending on the local climate. It is commonly referred to by several different names which include North American timber, spruce/pine/fir (SPF), and whitewood.
Ornamental uses[edit]
Many pine species make attractive ornamental plantings for
parks and larger
gardens with a variety of dwarf
cultivars being suitable for smaller spaces. Pines are also commercially grown and harvested for
Christmas trees. Pine cones, the largest and most durable of all
conifer cones, are craft favorites. Pine boughs, appreciated especially in wintertime for their pleasant smell and greenery, are popularly cut for decorations. Pine needles are also used for making decorative articles such as baskets, trays, pots, etc, and during the U.S. Civil War, the needles of the longleaf pine "Georgia pine" were widely employed in this.
[9]This originally Native American skill is now being replicated across the world. Pine needle handicrafts are made in the US, Canada, Mexico, Nicaragua, and India.
Wildlife[edit]
Farming[edit]
When grown for sawing timber, pine plantations can be harvested after 30 years, with some stands being allowed to grow up to 50 (as the wood value increases more quickly as the trees age). Imperfect trees (such as those with bent trunks or forks, smaller trees, or diseased trees) are removed in a "thinning" operation every 5-10 years. Thinning allows the best trees to grow much faster, because it prevents weaker trees from competing for sunlight, water, and nutrients. Young trees removed during thinning are used for pulpwood, while most older ones are good enough for saw timber.
The final wood quality can be improved by pruning small branches at ages 5, 7, and 9. Pruning usually goes up to a height of 6 metres (20 ft). This results in smooth timber with no knots, which is considerably more valuable.
[10]
A 30-year-old commercial pine tree grown in good conditions will be about 0.3 m (1.0 ft) in diameter and about 20 m (66 ft) high. After 50 years, the same tree will be about 0.5 m (1.6 ft) in diameter and 25 m (82 ft) high, and its wood will be worth about seven times as much as the 30-year-old tree.
[11]
Trees are planted 3-4 m apart, or about 1000 per hectare (100,000 per km2).
Some species have large
seeds, called
pine nuts, that are harvested and sold for cooking and baking. They are an essential ingredient of
pesto alla genovese.
The soft, moist, white inner bark (
cambium) found clinging to the woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins
A and
C. It can be eaten raw in slices as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder for use as an
ersatz flour or thickener in stews, soups, and other foods, such as
bark bread. Adirondack Indians got their name from the
Mohawk Indian word
atirú:taks, meaning "tree eaters".
A
tea made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as
tallstrunt in Sweden) is high in vitamins A and C. In eastern Asia, pine and other conifers are accepted among consumers as a beverage product, and used in teas, as well as wine.
[12]
Pine needles from
Pinus densiflora were found to contain 30.54 mg/g of proanthocyanidins when extracted with hot water.
[13] Comparative to ethanol extraction resulting in 30.11 mg/g, simply extracting in hot water is preferable.
Proanthocyanidins, the nutrient for which wine and grapes are famed and grapeseed extract is used medicinally
[14], is in nearly the same quantity in pine needles of
P. densiflora as it is in grape juice (35 mg/g). Grapeseed extract from cultivated grapes is 48.9 to 96.7 mg/g.
[15]
Folk medicine[edit]
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