Common Names
Chilgoza pine (2).Taxonomic notes
The type of three species in Pinus subsection Gerardianae, the Asian nut pines. Syn.: Pinus gerardii J. Forbes 1833 (1).Description
Trees 10-20(25) m tall. Crown usually deep, wide and open with long, erect branches, but crown narrower and shallower in dense forest. Bark very flaky, peeling to reveal light greyish-green patches, similar to Pinus bungeana. Branchlets smooth, olive-green. Leaves in fascicles of 3, 6-10 cm long, finer than those of P. bungeana, spreading stiffly, sheaths falling after 1 year. Female cones 12-20 cm long, 10 cm wide when open, with wrinkled, reflexed apophyses and a umbo curved inward at the base. Seeds >2 cm long with a rudimentary wing (3, 4). The seeds are not shed but are retained by the wing adhering to the base of the scale above (2).Range
Himal: E Afghanistan, N Pakistan, India: Jammu-Kashmir, Tibet (1). Mostly grows in valleys at 2000-3350 m elevation (3), often in association with Pinus wallichiana (4).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
In Afghanistan, this species is cultivated for its edible seed (3), and efforts are underway to expand its economic utilization in India (5, 6). Elsewhere, native populations are ruthlessly exploited, with typically 100% of cones harvested. This harvest pressure is driven by subsistence and for the economic benefits that it provides; for example, in a good year, about 13,000 indigenous people in the Suleiman Mountains of Pakistan derive income from the nut harvest. As a consequence, there is virtually no natural regeneration of this species except in that very small fraction of its range (about 5%) where the species is inaccessible to significant human exploitation (4).Observations
Remarks
Seeds are dispersed by a Eurasian nutcracker, Nucifraga caryocatactes subsp. multipunctata (2).The species was discovered by a British officer in India, 'Captain Gerard,' and subsequently (1839) introduced to England, where it was found to be frost-sensitive (3).
This species is listed as "LR/nt" (lower risk, near threatened) by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre - Trees database.
Citations
(1) Farjon 1998.(2) Ronald M. Lanner. 1996. Made for each other: A symbiosis of birds and pines. New York: Oxford University Press.
(3) Farjon 1984.
(5) Singh, N.B. 1992. Propagation, selection and establishment of clonal seed orchard of Chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana Wall.). Indian Forester 118: 901-908.
(6) Singh, N.B. and V.K. Chaudhary. 1993. Variability, heritability and genetic gain in cone and nut characters in Chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana Wall.). Silvae Genetica 42: 61-63.
See also:
Martin, G.J. 1995. Ethnobotany. London: Chapman and Hall.
Sehgal, R.N. and P.K. Sharma. Chilgoza: the endangered social forestry pine of Kinnaur. Nauni, India: Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2285/pi/pin/gerardiana.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:
earlecj@earthlink.net
Last modified on 6-Feb-2000