Relatives
Pinus sylvestris L. - Scotch Pine, Scots Pine.
Taxonomic position.
Family Pinaceae Lindl. genus Pinus L.Morphology and biology.
Evergreen tree. Trunk straight, 20-40 m tall; crown rounded, bark light, red-brown, split, above on branches yellowish, flaking. Leaves 5-7 cm long, glaucous-green. Strobili aggregated in oval-conical or oblong raceme; their scales with almost entire margins; cones solitary or by 2-3 on deflexed stalks, mature during the second year, mature ones grey, dull, oval-conical, scale umbones subrhombic with 4-6 facets converging to a deflexed tubercle. Seeds small, orbicular-oblong, blackish or grey, with a wing 3 times as long as seed. Monoecious (with tend to dioecy), anemophilous, anemochore.Distribution.
European part, Crimea, Caucasus, West Siberia, Altai, East Siberia, Far East, Northern Kazakhstan; West Europe, Northern Mongolia, Northeastern China.Ecology.
Within its range, pine forms pure forests (called pineries), mainly on sandy soils; if admixed with spruce and others it occurs as well on podsol soils in mixed and coniferous forests almost everywhere. In steppe zone, its occurrence is limited within riverine sands and chalks; does not penetrate in watersheds; in the north, pine readily inhabits blown glacial sands and prominence slopes. In Siberian mountains it prefers dry sunny slopes with sartilaginous half-soil. Besides, pine may occur under any conditions, but in the state of much or less depression.Use and economic value.
Pine provides excellent building and carpentry timber, fuel, tar, resin, pitch, black pitch or ship resin, carbon black, pine oil or turpentine, turpentine essence, rosin.References:
Sokolov SI., Svjaseva OA., Kubli VA. 1977. Ranges of trees and shrubs of the USSR. V.1. Leningrad: Nauka. 240 p. (In Russian).Kharkevich SS., ed. 1985. Vascular plants of the Soviet Far East. V.1. Leningrad: Nauka. 398 p. (In Russian).
Tolmachev AI., ed. 1974. Flora of the Northeast of European part of the USSR. V.1. Leningrad: Nauka. 275 p. (In Russian).
Krasnoborov IM., ed. 1988. Flora of Siberia. V.1. Lycopodiaceae - Hydrocharitaceae. Novosibirsk: Nauka. 199 p. (In Russian).