#54 AUSTRIAN PINE
Pinus nigra
Planted: 1912
This tree can be found on the north side of the Park Drive Path.
| Distribution: | Southern Europe and mountains of north-west Africa. Naturalised in the mid-west states of the U.S. In New Zealand it is considered an invasive species and noxious weed. |
| Planting Date: | 1912, planted by Captain Chaplin as part of his Pinetum. |
| Growth Habit: | A large coniferous evergreen tree. |
| Bark: | Gray to yellow-brown, and is widely split by flaking fissures into scaly plates, becoming increasingly fissured with age. |
| Leaf: | The needles are thinner and more flexible in western populations. |
| Flowers: | The ovulate and pollen cones appear from May to June. |
| Fruit: | The mature seed cones are 5 to 10 cm long, with rounded scales; they ripen from green to pale gray-buff or yellow-buff in September to November, about 18 months after pollination. The seeds are dark gray, 6 to 8 millimetres long, with a yellow-buff wing 20 to 25 mm long; they are wind-dispersed when the cones open from December to April. Large seed crops are produced at 2 to 5 year intervals. |
| Toxicity: | Not to animals |
| Potential tree size: | 20 to 55 m and spreading to 6 to 12 m. |
| Uses: | The timber is similar to that of Scots pine (P. sylvestris) -moderately hard and straight-grained. It is rougher, softer, and not as strong, due to its faster growth. It is used for general construction, fuel, and in paper manufacture. In the UK it is important both as a timber tree and in plantations. In the U.S. and Canada, it is planted as a street tree. Its value is its resistance to salt spray – from road de-icing salt. |
| Plant Hunter: | Not known |
| Introduction Date: | Not known |
| Anecdotes and Comments: | Alternative names are Black pine, Calabrian black pine and Corsican pine. |