Pinus brutia - WikiHQ

Pinus brutia, commonly known as the Turkish pine and Calabrian pine, is a species of pine native to the eastern Mediterranean region. The bulk of its range is in Turkey, with smaller populations occurring in Bulgaria, Crete, Cyprus, Iraq, western Syria, Northern Iran, Crimea, the western Caucasus, and Azerbaijan; it is also naturalised as far east as Afghanistan and Pakistan. The needles are in fascicles of two, or rarely three.

The male cones are squat, long. The female cones are short, with rigid, woody scales, long, broad, maturing from green to red-orange; occasional specimens show similarities in cone structure to the related Pinus canariensis.

Varieties

thumb|P. brutia var. eldarica specimen cultivated in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Pinus brutia var. brutia: Typical form, with needles long. Found across the Eastern Mediterranean. Often treated as a subspecies of P. brutia, Due to its tolerance of drought and poor soil, it is widely planted as an ornamental tree in southern Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the southwestern United States.

Distribution and habitat

thumb|left|Old Pinus brutia near Datça, Turkey

The bulk of its range is in Turkey, but it also extends to southeasternmost Bulgaria, the East Aegean Islands of Aegean Sea, Crete, Crimea, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, western Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus. Its presence in the eastern Mediterranean is hypothesised to date only from the nineteenth century, and is predominantly due to human activity. It is not native to Israel, but was introduced there in the 1930s. It generally occurs at low altitudes, mostly from sea level to in northern Turkey, up to in the south of its range.

The Krüper's nuthatch, a rare nuthatch, is largely restricted to forests of Turkish pine and depends heavily on it for feeding; the ranges of the two species are largely coincident.

P. brutia is resistant to the Israeli pine bast scale insect Matsucoccus josephi and is a major host for Thaumetopoea caterpillars.

The species covers in Cyprus, roughly ~90% of all woodland coverage on the island. It forms ectomycorrhizal associations with numerous species of fungi, and its logs and branches are excellent substrates for many kinds of decomposing organisms.

Uses

thumb|Pinus brutia in Crimea, Ukraine

Honey

Turkish pine is host to a sap-sucking aphid Marchalina hellenica. Under normal circumstances, this insect does no significant damage to the pine, but is of great importance for the excess sugar it secretes. This sugar, "honeydew", is collected by honey bees which make it into a richly flavoured and valuable honey, "pine honey" (Turkish, çam balı), with reputed medicinal benefits.

Landmark

The "Lone Pine", a prominent landmark tree at an ANZAC First World War battle at Gallipoli, was this species. Cones from the battlefield were taken home to Australia, and plants sourced from the seeds were planted as living memorials.

"Lone Pine" memorials, based on cones brought back from Gallipoli, may use this species or Aleppo pine. Some memorials utilise other species altogether.

Forestry

It is widely planted for timber, both in its native area (it is the most important tree in forestry in Turkey and Cyprus) and elsewhere in the Mediterranean region east to Pakistan.

The timber is used for many purposes including carpentry, industry, general constructions, firewood and pulp. In Israel it is sometimes preferred to the more widely-used Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) because of its resistance to Matsucoccus josephi. It is also known for being well suited to recreational sites.

Cultivation

Pinus brutia is a popular ornamental tree, extensively planted in parks and gardens in hot dry areas (such as southern California, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada, as well as throughout Arizona and central Texas in the United States), where its considerable heat and drought tolerance is highly valued. The subspecies eldarica is the most drought tolerant form, used in Afghanistan, Iran and more recently in the Southwestern United States. In this region, P. brutia subsp. eldarica is referred to as "Eldarica pine", "Afghan pine" or "Mondell pine" (after Mondell Bennett, a commercial tree grower in New Mexico who popularised the species starting in 1969).

References

External links

Photos of trees in Turkey (scroll down page)
Gymnosperm Database - Pinus brutia
Conifers Around the World: Pinus brutia – Calabrian pine
Pinus brutia - distribution map, genetic conservation units and related resources. European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN)