''Pinus pumila'', commonly known as the Siberian dwarf pine, dwarf Siberian pine, dwarf stone pine, Japanese stone pine, or creeping pine, is a tree in the family

Pinaceae The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly know ...

native to northeastern Asia and the Japanese isles. It shares the common name ''creeping pine'' with several other plants.

Description

The Siberian dwarf pine is a

conifer Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...

ous

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

shrub ranging from in height, exceptionally up to , but may have individual branches that extend farther along the ground in length. In the mountains of northern Japan, it sometimes hybridises with the related Japanese white pine (''

Pinus parviflora ''Pinus parviflora'', also known as five-needle pine, Ulleungdo white pine, or Japanese white pine, is a pine in the white pine group, ''Pinus'' subgenus ''Strobus'', native to Korea and Japan. It is a coniferous evergreen tree, growing to 15– ...

''); these hybrids (''Pinus'' × ''hakkodensis'') are larger than ''P. pumila'', reaching tall on occasion. The leaves are needle-like, formed in bundles of five and are 4–6 centimetres long. The cones are 2.5–4.5 cm long, with large nut-like seeds ( pine nuts).

Distribution

The range covers the Far East, Eastern Siberia, north-east of Mongolia, north-east of China, northern Japan and Korea. Siberian dwarf pine can be found along mountain chains, above the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

, where it forms dense, uninterrupted thickets; it also grows on the headlands above the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, Tatarsk and Pacific coast (the Kurils). ''P. pumila'' grows very slowly. It can live up to 300 and, in some instances, 1,000 years. In the colder conditions of Siberia, there are specimens which are 250 years old and older.

Ecology

The seeds are harvested and dispersed by the spotted nutcracker (''Nucifraga caryocatactes''). Pinus pumila 03.jpg, Young seed cones of Pinus pumila BG Tallinn.jpg, Pinus pumila microstrobilus BG Tallinn.jpg,

Cultivation

This plant is grown as an ornamental shrub in parks and gardens. The

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

''P. pumila'' 'Glauca' has 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 (No ...

's Award of Garden Merit.

References

External links