''Pinus wallichiana'' is a coniferous

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

tree native to the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

in southwest China. It grows in mountain valleys at altitudes of 1800–4300 m (rarely as low as 1200 m), reaching in height. It favours a temperate climate with dry winters and wet summers. In Pashto, it is known as ''Nishtar''. This tree is often known as Bhutan pine, (not to be confused with the recently described Bhutan white pine, '' Pinus bhutanica'', a closely related species). Other names include blue pine, Himalayan pine and Himalayan white pine.

Description

The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

("needles") are in fascicles (bundles) of five and are 12–18 cm long. They are noted for being flexible along their length, and often droop gracefully. The cones are long and slender, 16–32 cm, yellow-buff when mature, with thin scales; the seeds are 5–6 mm long with a 20–30 mm wing. Typical habitats are mountain screes and glacier forelands, but it will also form old-growth forests as the primary species or in mixed forests with deodar, birch,

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

, and fir. In some places it reaches the tree line. ''P. wallichiana'' is the primary host for Himalayan dwarf mistletoe.

Uses

The wood is moderately hard, durable and highly resinous. It is a good firewood but gives off a pungent resinous smoke. It is a commercial source of turpentine which is superior quality than that of '' P. roxburghii'' but is not produced so freely. The tree became available through the European nursery trade in 1836, nine years after the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich first introduced seeds to England. It is a popular tree for planting in

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s and large gardens, grown for its attractive foliage and large, decorative cones. It is also valued for its relatively high resistance to

air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

, tolerating this better than some other conifers. This plant and its slow-growing

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

'Nana' have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

Gallery

File:Bhutan pine foliage.JPG, Foliage Bhutan-Paro-144-Abstieg vom Taktshang-Tigernest-Pinienzweig-gje.jpg, Branch with needles, Paro, Bhutan File:Pinus wallichiana at VanDusen Botanical Garden.jpg, Cones, at VanDusen Botanical Garden File:Arceuthobium minutissimum.jpg, ''P. wallichiana'' branch infected with Himalayan dwarf mistletoe Pinus wallichiana (DSC03147).jpg, Sapling

References

External links

Gymnosperm Database: ''Pinus wallichiana''

Plants for a future
{{Authority control wallichiana Trees of Afghanistan Trees of Myanmar Trees of Nepal Trees of Pakistan Flora of Tibet Flora of West Himalaya Flora of East Himalaya Trees of temperate climates Plants described in 1938