Pinus armandii

Franchet 1884

Common names

华山松 hua shan song [Chinese]; Chinese white pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: P. dabeshanensis, P. masteriana. One variety, mastersiana. P. amamiana was formerly described as a variety of P. armandii.

Description

Trees to 35m tall and 100 cm dbh. Conical in young trees with whorled branching, with age becoming rounded and irregularly branched. Bark smooth, brownish-gray, with age becoming platy and fissured, blackish brown to grayish red brown, covered by thin, loosely appressed small scales; outer bark about 8 mm thick, inner bark 8-l5 mm thick, pale reddish white, finely fibrous. Needles in fascicles of 5, the sheath soon deciduous; slender, 8-15 cm long, 1-1.5 mm thick, serrulate, bright green, triangular in cross section, with 1 vascular bundle and 3 resin ducts, one medial, two marginal. Pollen cones in spiral clusters at the base of new shoots, 1.5-2.5 cm long, greenish white with a reddish tip. Seed cones in 1's and 2's, erect becoming pendulous from stout 2-3 cm long peduncles, 8-14 cm long, conical-cylindric, often resinous, green maturing golden brown, falling after seeds have dispersed. Cone scales rigid, 3-4 x 2.5-3 cm, apophysis triangular or rhombic, thickened; umbo obtuse, darker than scale, without a prickle. Seed obovoid, 10-15 mm long, wingless (Liu 1970, Farjon 2010).

Distribution and Ecology

China: S Gansu, C and NW Guizhou, Hainan, SW Henan, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, S Shanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan at 900-3,500 m; N and C Taiwan at altitudes of 2,300-3,000 m; N Myanmar; usually in mixed conifer forests with species of Abies, Picea, Pseudotsuga and (in SW China) Larix; often on thin, rocky soils (Liu 1970, Wu and Raven 1999, Farjon 2010). The trees in Taiwan are var. mastersiana; all others are var. armandii.

Hardy to Zone 7 (cold hardiness limit between -17.7°C and -12.2°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Big tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

Franchet, A.R. 1884. Plantae davidianae ex sinarum imperio. Part I. Plantes de Mongolie du nord et du centre de la Chine. Coniferae. T. VII, pp. 285-293, pl. 12-14. Paris.

See also