Pinus patula

Pinus patula

Pinus patula is an indigenous plant species of the genus only in Mexico pines ( Pinus ).

Features

Pinus patula reaches stature heights of 30 to 35 m and a trunk diameter of 50 to 90 cm, rarely 40 m height and 1 m in diameter. The trunk is usually straight and free of branches up to 20 m height. The lower branches are horizontally directed slightly downward to sometimes and form an open, rounded crown. The bark is in mature trees in lower crown area thick with deep, vertical cracks. Add 3 to 4 m height, the bark is thin, scaly and reddish to yellowish- red. On young trees the bark is thin, scaly and yellowish red. The branches are slender, sometimes slightly pendulous, scaly and yellowish red.

The needle leaves are in clusters on short shoots three, sometimes four, rarely five; the sheaths are pale gray-brown, 10 to 15 mm long and persistent. The needle leaves are slender, 15-25 cm long, hanging, light green to yellow-green. The margin is finely serrated. There are one to four, usually three resin canals present. There are two adjacent, but deferred vascular bundles.

The male cones are in dense groups of two to ten, on slender stems not only on branches, but also on the trunk. Her small, thick cone scales carry a small, sloping spine.

The female cones are hard, oblong- conical, slightly curved. They are 7-10 cm long, sitting and brown to yellow-brown. They are in groups of four to eight pins. They ripen in winter, but often remain closed for years and often begin to open after a fire. The cone scales are hard and stiff.

The seeds are very small, about 5 mm long, dark brown to almost black. The seed wing is about 17 mm long and light brown. There are usually five, rarely four cotyledons present. To one kilogram of roughly 115,000 seeds.

The wood is soft, light and pale yellowish - white with slightly darker heartwood.

Dissemination and locations

Pinus patula has a very limited distribution. It occurs in scattered populations from in the southeast area of the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico, approximately between the 24th and the 17th degree of north latitude.

This species grows at altitudes 1500-3100 meters in areas with 1000-1500 mm annual rainfall. Moisture throughout the year in the form of fog or rain present. In drier areas of Pinus patula Pinus and Pinus is teocote leiophylla displaced.

The species was, however, among others, as a forest tree 1907 introduced into southern Africa and feral there.

Documents

• BI Nyoka 2003: Pinus patula in Southern Africa. In: Biosecurity in forestry: a case study on the status of invasive forest trees species in Southern Africa. Forest Biosecurity Working Paper FBS/1E. Forestry Department. FAO, Rome online
• Jesse P. Perry: The Pines of Mexico and Central America. Timber Press, Portland, 1991, pp. 168ff. ISBN 0-88192-174-2