Pinus densiflora description

Line drawing from the Flora of China (Wu and Raven 1999).

Shoot of an ornamental specimen (Seattle, WA) showing foliage and twig [C.J. Earle, 28-Feb-1999].

Bark of an ornamental specimen in Seattle (USA) [C.J. Earle, 28-Feb-1999].

Cone from an ornamental specimen in Seattle (USA) [C.J. Earle, 12-Jan-2004].

Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini 1842

Common Names

Japanese red pine, AKA-MATSU, ME-MATSU (Japanese) (Ohwi 1965).

Taxonomic notes

Three varieties:

Pinus densiflora var. densiflora (syn: P. densiflora var. brevifolia Liou et Q.L. Wang; P. densiflora var. funebris (Komarov) Liou et Q.L. Wang ex Silba; P. densiflora f. liaotungensis (Liou et Q.L. Wang) Kitagawa; P. densiflora var. liaotungensis Liou et Q.L. Wang; P. funebris Komarov; P. scopifera Miquel.) (Wu and Raven 1999).
Pinus densiflora var. ussuriensis Liou et Q.L. Wang 1958 (syn: P. densiflora f. ussuriensis (Liou et Q.L. Wang) Kitagawa; P. takahasii Nakai (Wu and Raven 1999).
Pinus densiflora var. zhangwuensis S.J. Zhang et al. 1995 (Wu and Raven 1999).

Wu and Raven (1999) provide a key to the varieties and descriptions of each, HERE.

Description

Tree: Straight to contorted (particularly in coastal settings), to 36m tall, with an open, irregular or umbrella-shaped crown. Lower branches shed early even in open settings (Ohwi 1965, Farjon 1984).
Bark: Red-brown, in large plates (on old trees) or flaky and papery (Ohwi 1965, Farjon 1984).
Branches: Rapidly becoming smooth with age, grey-green, developing papery reddish bark (Farjon 1984).
Leaves: Green, pliable, 2 per fascicle, sheaths retained, 8-12 cm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, acute, with minute marginal teeth, stomata in lines on all surfaces; retained in bunches at ends of twigs (Ohwi 1965, Farjon 1984).
Cones: Conic-ovoid, tan to golden brown, 4-7 cm long, in whorls of 2-5 at branch nodes, remaining closed and attached for several years, on a 1-3 mm long somewhat flexible peduncle (Ohwi 1965).
Cone scales: About 50 scales may contain fertile seed; cuneate, the exposed part flattened, rhomboidal with a central, short-mucronate umbo; the concealed part a dark red-brown (Ohwi 1965).
Pollen cones: Small, ellipsoidal, pale yellow or yellow-brown, at end of shoots (Ohwi 1965, Farjon 1984).
Seeds: Seeds with attached wing 10-17 mm long.
Wood:
Similar species:

Range

China (Shandong, Jiangsu), Korea, Japan (S Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoko, Kyushu), and Russia: rare in southern Ussuriland on rocky slopes at 0-500 m or sandy soils, seashores, Khanka Lake islands (Harkevich and Kachura 1981, Vladimir Dinets e-mail 10-Jan-1998). Var. funebris found in Korea; China & Russia: Manchuria, N Ussuriland and Amur Valley (Vladimir Dinets e-mail 10-Jan-1998), where it grows from sea level to 600 m (Farjon 1984). It occurs from the coast into the lower mountains, sometimes reaching to 2300 m elevation (Ohwi 1965, Farjon 1984). This species has an invasive adaptation to fire; fires typically kill it, but it can quickly establish and attain dominance in the aftermath of a severe fire. This invasive potential also makes it a good example of a species that has been favored by human disturbance; in Japan, it was an uncommon species before about 2500 BP, when human disturbance was minimal and severe fires were infrequent. Red pine becomes prominent in the fossil pollen record at about the time that agriculture becomes widespread, and its spread in Japan is strongly correlated with the rise of agriculture (Agee 1998, Kremenetsi et al. 1998).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Besides following agriculture as a 'weedy' species, it is also one of the more popular ornamental pines, used as such in Japan since ancient times and now widely planted in Europe and North America.

Observations

Remarks

I have seen an ornamental cultivar, 'umbraculifera', that bears small (3-4 cm long) cones in whorled clusters of 20-30 cones.

Citations

Agee, J. 1998. Fire and pine ecosystems, pp. 193-218 in Richardson 1998.

Harkevich, S. and N. Kachura. 1981. Rare Plant Species of The Soviet Far East and Their Conservation. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian).

Kremenetsi et al. 1998. Late Quaternary dynamics of pines in northern Asia, pp. 95-106 in Richardson 1998.

Li De-Zhu. 1997. A reassessment of Pinus subgen. Pinus in China. Edinb. J. Bot. 54(3): 337-349.