Species:

(Pinus banksiana Lamb.)
-> Genus: Pinus (Pinus) -> Family: Pinaceae (Pinaceae) -> Group: Gymnosperms

Habitus

  • tree 15-20 m tall with a shapeless (crooked) trunk and irregularly branched sparse crown
  • the peculiarity is that 2 - 3 whorls of branches can form on the annual shoot
  • bark red-brown
  • bark black, relatively thin – scaly

Buds

  • buds are oblong-ovoid, yellow-brown
  • bud scales are pressed, strongly resinous

Leaves (assimilation organs)

  • assimilation organs are needle-shaped
  • needles are 2 each on brachyblasts, 3-5 cm long, firm, twisted along the axis, sticking out on all sides
  • slightly saw-toothed along the edge
  • last 3-4 years on the twig

Flowers

  • wood monoecious, flowers unisex, blooms IV – V
  • male (♂) cones are ovoid, yellow, grouped at the base of this year's shoot
  • female (♀) cones are ovoid to spherical, red, short-stalked, located at the end, but also on the sides of this year's shoot, 2-3 in whorls

Fruits – seeds

  • fruit is a cone, 3 - 5 x 2 - 3 cm in size, conical, sessile, sickle-like curved towards the branch, lasts on the tree for several years (10-20 years)
  • ripens in the fall of the second year

Extension

  • originally grows on the North American continent - Canada, the north of the USA, where it forms homogeneous stands on poor soils (rocky places, swamps)
  • it was introduced to Europe in 1783

Ecology

  • in Slovakia it resists low temperatures very well

Significance

  • in the past it was used for afforestation of the poorest soils (where it initially grew better than domestic Scots pine )
  • as park trees
  • greening and stabilization of embankment and excavation slopes