Blue Pine

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Blue Pine

Blue Pine at Tortworth Court arboretum

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Pinus
Subgenus:	Strobus
Species:	P. wallichiana

Binomial name

Pinus wallichiana
A. B. Jacks.

The Blue Pine (Pinus wallichiana) is a pine native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows at high altitudes in mountain valleys at altitudes of 1800-4300 m (rarely as low as 1200 m), and is a tree from 30-50 m in height. It grows in a temperate climate with dry winters and wet summers.

This pine is also called the Himalayan White Pine. It is also often known as 'Bhutan Pine', a name which can cause confusion with the more recently-described Pinus bhutanica, a closely related species. In the past, Blue Pine was also known by the invalid Latin names "Pinus griffithii" McClelland or "Pinus excelsa" Wall., and was also known as "Pinus chylla" Lodd. when the tree became available through the European nursery trade in 1836, nine years after Dr Wallich first introduced seeds to England.

Blue Pine foliage

The leaves ("needles") are in fascicles (bundles) of five and are 12-18 cm long, 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 Cedar, birch, spruce, and fir. In some places it reaches the tree line.

[edit] Uses

The wood is moderately hard, durable and highly resinous. It is a good firewood but gives off a pungent resinous smoke. It is another commercial source of turpentine which is superior quality than that of Chir Pine (P. roxburghii) but is not produced so freely.

It is also a popular tree for planting in parks and large gardens, grown for its attractive foliage and large, decorative cones. It is also valued for its relatively high resistance to air pollution, tolerating this better than some other conifers.