Bosnian Pine
Encyclopedia
The Bosnian Pine is a species of pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

 native to Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 but is also found in the mountains of southeastern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, in southwestern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

, the Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, northern Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 (south to Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

), and locally in southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 (it is the symbol of the Pollino National Park
Pollino National Park
The Pollino National Park is a national park in Basilicata and Calabria, southern Italy. Comprised within the provinces of Cosenza, Matera and Potenza, with its 1,820 square kilometres it is the largest natural park in the country...

), growing at 900–2,500 m altitude. It often reaches the alpine tree line in this area. It is an evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 is up to 25–35 m height, and 2 m trunk diameter.
It is a member of the hard pine
Pinus classification
There are three main subgenera of Pinus, the subgenus Strobus , the subgenus Ducampopinus , and the subgenus Pinus...

 group, Pinus subgenus Pinus, with leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 ('needles') in fascicles (bundles) of two, with a persistent sheath. They are 4.5–10 cm long and 1.5–2 mm thick. Bosnian Pine cones
Conifer cone
A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

 are 5–9 cm long, with thin, fragile scales; they are dark blue-purple before maturation, turning brown when ripe about 16-18 months after pollination. The 6–7 mm long seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s have a 2–2.5 cm wing and are wind-dispersed.

A notable specimen in the Pirin
Pirin
The Pirin Mountains are a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, with Vihren the highest peak, situated at . The range extends about 40 km northwest-southeast, and about 25 km wide. Most of the range is protected in the Pirin National Park...

 Mountains of Bulgaria, known as Baikushev's Pine
Baikushev's Pine
The Baikushev's Pine is a coniferous tree from the species Bosnian Pine situated in Pirin, southwestern Bulgaria. It is named after its discoverer, forest ranger Kostadin Baikushev, and is located near the Banderitsa refuge...

, is 24 m tall, 2.2 m in diameter, and is estimated to be over 1300 years old.

Nomenclature

The species was first described as Pinus heldreichii by the Swiss botanist K. Hermann Christ in honor of Theodor von Heldreich
Theodor von Heldreich
Theodor Heinrich Hermann von Heldreich was a German botanist, who was born on 3 March 1822 in Dresden and died on 7 September 1902 in Athens....

 in 1863 from specimens collected on Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...

, and then described a second time as P. leucodermis in 1864; the author of the second description (the Austrian botanist F. Antoine who found it on Orjen
Orjen
Orjen is a Dinaric Mediterranean limestone mountain range in Montenegro-Bosnia and Herzegovina. At 1894 m , Zubački kabao is the highest peak in the subadriatic Dinarides. The massif of Orjen lies to the Northwest of Risan in Bay of Kotor...

 above the Bay of Kotor
Bay of Kotor
The Bay of Kotor in south-western Montenegro is a winding bay on the Adriatic Sea. The bay, sometimes called Europe's southernmost fjord, is in fact a submerged river canyon of the disintegrated Bokelj River which used to run from the high mountain plateaus of Mount Orjen...

) being unaware of the slightly earlier publication by Christ. Some minor morphological differences have been claimed between the two descriptions (leading to the maintenance of both as separate taxa
Taxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 by a few botanists), but this is not supported by modern studies of the species, which show that both names refer to the same taxon. The discrepancies in the descriptions are largely due to Christ's cone specimens being immature and shrunken after drying, having been collected in July, four months before maturity.

Cultivation and uses

Bosnian Pine is a popular ornamental tree in park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

s and large garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...

s, giving reliable steady though not fast growth on a wide range of sites, and with a very neat, conical crown. It is also noted for its very decorative purple cones. It is very tolerant of severe winter cold, hardy down to at least −45°C, and of severe wind exposure. Many in cultivation are still grown under the name "Pinus leucodermis" or "Pinus heldreichii var. leucodermis".
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