Common Names
None regularly used in English; Turkish pine, East Mediterranean pine and Calabrian pine have all been used. 'Calabrian' is most commonly used, but as the species is not native there this name is not recommended (4). In Turkish, it is known as Kizilçam ('Red pine').Taxonomic notes
Syn: P. halepensis var. brutia (Ten.) Elwes et Henry; P. halepensis subsp. brutia (Tenore) Holmboe; P. persica Strangw.Three varieties and one subspecies recognised (4): var. pityusa (Steven) Silba (syn: P. pityusa Steven); var. stankewiczii (Sukaczev) Frankis; var. pendulifolia Frankis; and subsp. eldarica (Medw.) Nahal (syn: P. eldarica Medw.).
V. Dinets (2) reports one other variety, var. sogdaianus, of uncertain validity; see Remarks.
Closely related to Pinus halepensis (3) but also showing relationships to Pinus canariensis and other Mediterranean - East Asian pines (4).
Description
"The Turkish pine is a tree to 27-35 m, with a usually open crown of irregular branches. The bark on the lower trunk is thick, scaly, fissured, patterned red-brown and buff, and thin, flaky and orange-red higher in the crown. The shoots are slender, 3-7 mm thick, grey-buff, and rough with persistent small decurrent scale-leaf bases. The winter buds are ovoid-acute, with red-brown scales with long free tips revolute and fringed with white hairs. The adult leaves are retained for 1.5-2.5 years, with a persistent 1-1.5 cm sheath; on most trees they are in fascicles of two, and 10-18 cm long. They are bright green to yellow-green, slender, about 1mm thick, with serrulate margins, fine lines of stomata on both faces, and several marginal resin canals. The juvenile leaves are glaucous, 1.5-4 cm long, and continue to be grown for 2-4 years, mixed with the first adult foliage produced from 9 months from seed. The cones are erect to forward pointing on short stout stalks, symmetrical, broad conic, (4-)6-10(-12) cm long, 4-5 cm broad when closed, green, ripening shiny red-brown in April two years after pollination. They open the same summer or 1-2 years later, to 5-8 cm broad, though the seeds are often not shed till winter rain softens the scales. The scales are short, broad, thick, woody, and very stiff; the apophysis is 10-15 x 15-20 mm, smoothly rounded, with a slight to moderate transverse ridge; the umbo is dorsal, flat to slightly raised, 5-7mm wide, and grey-buff. The seeds are grey-brown, 7-8 × 5mm with a broad, auricled 15-20 × 10 mm wing, yellow-buff streaked darker brown" (4).Occasional trees can be found with many of their leaves in fascicles of three, and some others show cone scale morphology closely resembling that of Pinus canariensis (4).
The vars. pityusa and stankewiczii differ very little from the type in morphology, but showed differences in electrophoretic tests (7). Var. pendulifolia differs in having markedly longer leaves, 20-29 cm long, which because of their length are pendulous (4).
Subsp. eldarica has shorter, stouter leaves 8-13 cm long, slightly smaller cones and slightly larger seeds, and is adapted to a different climatic regime (4).
Range
Primarily in Turkey and far E Greece, secondarily in the Crimea, Caucasus coast, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Crete and Cyprus. It grows at 01525 m elevation, below the other indigenous pines of the area, P. nigra Arnold var. caramanica (Loudon) Rehder and P. sylvestris L. var. hamata Steven (4). "It is also found in the Italian province of Calabria (in Roman times: Brutia), but was probably imported there" (3).The type occurs in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Crete, eastern Aegean islands, and possibly the extreme NE of the Greek mainland.
Var. pendulifolia occurs scattered in southwest Turkey mixed with the type (4). Var. pityusa is found in a few isolated stands near Pitsunda on the eastern Black Sea coast in Russia and Georgia (2, 4). Var. stankewiczii occurs in the Crimea at 200-1000 m (2, 4). Subsp. eldarica occurs in Azerbaijan: "naturally found in one small stand [but] grown all across Central Asia due to its tolerance to aridity, unique among Palearctic pines", and commonly naturalised or possibly wild east through Iran and Afghanistan to Pakistan (2, 4).
Big Tree
One in the Hermon Mts., Israel, is 35 m tall; taller trees may occur in Turkey. One at Kemer, near Fethiye, SW Turkey, is 2.1 m dbh (6). The largest representative of var. pityusa is in Pitsunda Nat. Res., Abkhazia. Largest specimen of var. stankewiczii is on Roman-Kosh Mt (2).Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Known as 'pitys' to the ancient Greeks, this is the most important forest tree in the north-eastern Mediterranean area. A sap-sucking insect Marchalina hellenica produces large amounts of honey-dew, harvested by honeybees and sold as 'pine honey'. Pinus brutia was planted outside its native range in Greece from early times for this harvest (5).Observations
Remarks
Some trees have cones which do not open widely even after prolonged weathering, so the seeds are incapable of normal wind dispersal. This form is probably dispersed by Krüper's Nuthatch Sitta krueperi (1).Var. sogdaianus is restricted to a few small stands on Crimea S coast near Sudak (2); the validity of this variety is doubtful.
Citations
(1) M. P. Frankis. 1992. Krüper's Nuthatch Sitta krueperi and Turkish Pine Pinus brutia: an evolving association? Sandgrouse 13: 92-97.(2) Vladimir Dinets, e-mail communication, 12-Jan-1998.
(3) Farjon 1984.
(4) M. P. Frankis. 1993. Morphology and affinities of Pinus brutia. Pp. 11-18 in O. Tashkin (ed.) Papers International Symposium Pinus brutia. Marmaris / Ankara.
(5) G. Schiller. 1993. Pers. comm. to M. P. Frankis.
(6) H. Karaca measurement, in litt. to M. P. Frankis, 1994.
(7) M. T. Conkle, G. Schiller & C. Grunwald. 1988. Electrophoretic analysis of diversity and phylogeny of Pinus brutia and closely related taxa. Systematic Botany 13: 411-424.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/pi/pin/brutia.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 2-Jan-99