''Pinus cubensis'', or Cuban pine, is a
pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...
endemic to the eastern highlands of the island of
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, inhabiting both Sierra
Nipe
Nipe is a village in Risør municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located near the Skaggerak coast, about south of the village of Sandnes and the Sandnesfjorden and about northeast of the village of Gjeving in Tvedestrand
...
-
Cristal and
Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...
.
The closely related
Hispaniolan pine
''Pinus occidentalis'', also known as the Hispaniolan pine or Hispaniola pine, (or in Spanish: pino criollo ) is a pine tree endemic to the island of Hispaniola (split between the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
Ecology
It is the eponymous spe ...
(''P. occidentalis''), native to the neighboring island of
Hispaniola, is treated as
synonymous by some botanists. Modern systematic studies recognize ''P. cubensis'' it as a valid species,
[Farjon, A. 1997: ''Pinus (Pinaceae)'', ]Flora Neotropica
''Flora Neotropica'' is a series of monographs published by the New York Botanical Garden Press, and is the official publication of the Organization for Flora Neotropica. It covers the taxonomic treatment of American plants and plant families i ...
, Monograph 75 (together with Brian T. Styles). New York : The New York Botanical Garden. nevertheless, there is disagreement about whether the Sierra Maestra populations in the south are part of ''P. cubensis'' or conform another species named ''P. maestrensis''.
[López-Almirall A. 1982. Variabilidad del Género ''Pinus'' (Coniferales: Pinaceae) en Cuba. ''Acta Botánica Cubana'' 12: 1–32.]
The Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra population may have diverged recently, as indicated by recent genetic studies that have found some ancestral genetic lineages that are shared among the two regions and only some rare variants exclusive for each region.
[Jardón-Barbolla, L., Delgado-Valerio, P., Geada-López, G., Vázquez-Lobo, A., & Pinero D. (2011). Phylogeography of ''Pinus'' subsection ''Australes'' in the Caribbean Basin. ''Annals of Botany'' 107: 229-241.]
References
External links
*
''Pinus cubensis'' description (Gymnosperm Database)
Least concern plants
Cubensis
Trees of Cuba
Plants described in 1863
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