| This evergreen conifer has a rounded, broadly spreading growth habit, thick branches, and scaly gray bark. Shoots are green, turning to brown, quite resinous. Needle-like leaves are dark to bright green and held in pairs, to 3 inches long. Female cones are narrowly conical, brown, to 2 1/2 inches long. This is one of the most widely used pines because of its low growth habit. Excellent in containers and rock gardens.
Pines are one of the most diverse groups of evergreen conifers, over 90 species are distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Although most are large trees, they can take a low growing shrub form. Pines have been very important commercially, in timber production, as well as a variety of other manufactured products such as turpentine and rosin. They tend to be more tolerant of varying soil types and urban environments than either Picea or Abies. Pines tend to develop tap roots, so one should not attempt to transplant them from the wild. All species are grown from seed, with highly variable seed stratification requirements. They can be subject to many diseases, such as damping off, root rot, dieback, blister rust, canker, blight, scale, pine needle miner, pine weevil, bark beetles and pinewood nematode. Well situated plants should be relatively trouble free.
They suffer salt damage along highways and can get tip burn in areas of high sulfur dioxide or ozone.
In general they do not require fertilization, which can cause overgrowth. |
