''Pinus thunbergii'' (syn: ''Pinus thunbergiana''), also called black pine, Japanese black pine, and Japanese 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 accep ...

tree native to coastal areas of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

and

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

) and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. It is called () in

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, () in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, and () in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Description

Black pines can reach the height of , but rarely achieves this size outside its natural range. The needles are in fascicles of two with a white sheath at the base, long; female cones are in length, scaled, with small points on the tips of the scales, taking two years to mature. Male cones are long borne in clumps of 12–20 on the tips of the spring growth. The bark is gray on young trees and small branches, changing to black and plated on larger branches and the trunk; becoming quite thick on older trunks. It is a widely adapted plant with attractive dark green foliage.

Ecology

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

this tree is subject to widespread mortality by the native American pinewood nematode, ''

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus ''Bursaphelenchus xylophilus'', commonly known as pine wood nematode or pine wilt nematode (PWN), is a species of nematode that infects trees in the Pine, ''Pinus'' genus of coniferous trees and causes the disease Wilt disease#Pine wilt, pine wil ...

'', spread by means of beetle vectors. Subsequently,

blue stain fungus Blue stain fungi (also known as sap stain fungi) is a vague term including various fungi that cause dark staining in sapwood. The staining is most often blue, but could also be grey or black. Because the grouping is based solely on symptomatics, it ...

invades the plant, leading to a rapid decline and death. This

nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...

has also been introduced to Japan accidentally, leading to the species becoming endangered in its native area.

Uses

Because of its resistance to

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

, it is a popular

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

. In Japan it is widely used as a garden tree both trained as

Niwaki is the Japanese word for "garden trees". Niwaki is also a descriptive word for highly "sculpting trees". Most varieties of plants used in Japanese gardens are called ''niwaki''. These trees help to create the structure of the garden. Japanese g ...

and untrained growing as an overstory tree. The trunks and branches are trained from a young age to be elegant and interesting to view. It is one of the classic

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

subjects, requiring great patience over many years to train properly.

Second flush of growth

One characteristic of the Japanese Black Pine that makes it desirable for bonsai, is the possibility of inducing a second flush of new growth and improved ramification in a single growing season. Unlike most pines, which are single flush plants, the Japanese Black Pine can be induced to produce new buds at the base of each spring candle by simply cutting the candles at the base as they elongate, a technique called decandling. This technique will result, in a few weeks, in the flush of multiple new buds at the base of the cut candle; each of these new buds will result in turn in new candles and branches. Candles in JBP

Gallery

Image:Pinus thunbergii Bonsai.JPG, Pinus thunbergii var. corticata Bonsai Image:Japanese Black Pine.JPG, Pinus thunbergiana var. corticata Bonsai File:Japanese Black Pine in Ichikawa Chiba.jpg, Well trimmed, small in

Ichikawa, Chiba 240px, Ichikawa City Hall is a city in western Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 491,716 in 251,142 households and a population density of 8559 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . The city has a conc ...

File:Bark of Pinus thunbergii.jpg, Close up of trunk in

Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, and is linked to ...

File:Thunderhead Japanese Black Pine.JPG, Pinus thunbergii var. Thunderhead File:黑松 Pinus thunbergii 20211007185113 05.jpg, Close up, the bark seems to be made up of countless shiny metal pieces.

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

References

External links

Conifers Around the World: ''Pinus thunbergii - Japanese Black Pine''
Plants used in bonsai Trees of Korea Trees of Japan Ornamental trees thunbergii Least concern plants {{Conifer-stub