Common Names

Chir (Silba 1986) or Imodi pine; Chinese: xu mi chang ye song (Wu and Raven 1999).

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Pinus longifolia Roxb. ex Lamb. 1803 non Salisb. 1796 (Farjon 1998).

Description

Trees to 55 m tall and over 100 cm dbh. Bark dark red-brown, thick, deeply and longitudinally fissured, scaly; winter buds brown, small, ovoid, not resinous. Leaves 3 per bundle, slender, flabellate-triangular in cross section, 20-30 cm × 1.5 mm, resin canals 2, median, base with persistent sheath 2-3 cm long. Seed cones shortly pedunculate, ovoid, 10-20 × 6-9 cm. Seed scales oblong, thick, stiff; apophyses strongly swollen, conspicuously transversely ridged; umbo triangular, protruding. Seeds 8-12 mm long; wing ca. 2.5 cm long. Seed maturity Oct-Nov (Wu and Raven 1999).

Range

Himal: Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, S Tibet; in mountains at 2100--2200 m elevation (Wu and Raven 1999).

Big Tree

The only tree for which I have seen a measurement is on ornamental specimen in Capitol Park, Sacramento, California which was 30.5 m tall and 149 cm dbh (100 feet tall and 184 inch girth) in 2007 (Arthur L. Jacobson e-mail 2007.08.24).

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Exploratory work by Bhattacharyya et al. (1992) found that this species crossdates well and its growth is reasonably well correlated with climate. A few other studies have looked at wood anatomy and growth in relation to climate, but generally little work has been done. See also the Bibliography of Dendrochronology.

Ethnobotany

The timber is used for construction, furniture, etc., and the trunk as a source of resin (Wu and Raven 1999).

Observations

Remarks

The species comes closer than any other other pine to being deciduous, having a needle retention time of one year, the shortest of any pine (Richardson and Rundel 1998).

Citations

Bhattacharyya, A., LaMarche, Jr., V.C., Hughes, M.K. 1992. Tree-ring chronologies from Nepal. Tree-Ring Bulletin 52:59-66. Available online at www.treeringsociety.org/TRBTRR/TRBvol52_59-66.pdf (accessed 2006.06.14).