Name

Pinus nigra Arnold, Reise nach Mariazell in Steyerm. : 8 (1785).
[European black pine]

Description

Habit: Vary variable, largely according to subspecies; from narrowly columnar with light branches to very bushy and heavily branched.

Bark: In young trees soon becoming flaky, fissured, and ridged, often pinkish. In old trees thick, deeply fissured, dark grey to pinkish brown, often flaking off in large plates leaving a pale shiny surface.

Foliage: Needles in pairs, usually 8-14 cm (occasionally 2.5-19.0 cm) long, 1-2 mm wide; dark greyish or bluish green; rather rigid to flexible, strait or curved (may be slightly twisted especially in young plants); often bunched at the end of the shoots. Leaf sheath initially 10-15 mm long, becoming shorter.

Branchlets: Green at first, then becoming light yellow-brown to orange-brown in second year, without hairs, shiny, rigid and grooved. Leaf-bract bases persisting for several years, conspicuous as scale-like plates. Spring shoots strictly uninodal.

Winter buds: Ovoid to cylindrical, usually abruptly narrowed to a long tapering point; scales often white especially on the upper part of the bud; scales on the lower part frequently with a pale margin, fringed, closely pressed or sometimes free (especially near the bud base); varying from non-resinous to thinly or very resinous.

Cones: Solitary, in pairs, or three or four together; stalkless to very shortly stalked; ripening and opening in the second to third year; elongate-ovoid when closed, ovoid-conic with a flattened base when open, usually 5-8 cm (occasionally 3-9 cm) long, 2-4 cm broad when closed, slightly asymmetrical. Glossy and pale purplish brown to tawny-yellow when young becoming brown to grey-brown when ripe, weathering to dull grey. Scales oblong transversely ridged, with a dark brown umbo (swollen central part of scale) usually with a small, often deciduous prickle.

Seeds: Small, 4-7 mm long, 3-4 mm wide; pale yellowish or greyish brown, smooth to slightly ridged; ovate to elliptic, often quite pointed at one end. Wing usually 1.5 -2.0 cm long; pale chestnut brown.

Notes

The various forms of P. nigra are distinguishable from the two other needled pines by their yellowish brown young shoots, ovoid and abruptly pointed buds, and cones which are tawny-yellow before ripening.

Natural Distribution

S Europe, N Africa, Cyprus, Turkey.