Flora of New Zealand Series

radiata pine

Medium-sized to very large tree; habit variable, generally ± spreading, with foliage in dense terminal clusters. Bark thick, deeply fissured and ridged in mature trees, dark grey on surface, reddish brown beneath. Shoots brown or greyish brown, occasionally somewhat glaucous when young, glabrous. Buds cylindric or cylindric-ovoid, thinly resinous; scales appressed, chestnut-brown. Lvs 3 per fascicle, (3)-6-15 cm × 1.2-2 mm, deep or dark green, ± spreading, moderately rigid; resin canals median; sheath initially long but rarely > 1 cm long on mature lvs, persistent. ♂ strobili 0.7-1.5 cm long, cylindric. Conelets stalked, cylindric, scales with short mucro. Mature cones sessile or subsessile, 1- c. 6 in a cluster, backward pointing but not pendent, long-persistent, eventually falling intact, 6-13 × 4.5-8.5 cm when closed, ± ovoid, brown at maturity; base asymmetric; apophyses on upper side enlarged and rounded; umbo usually not armed at maturity. Seed wing ± oblong, only slightly wider towards apex, 1.5-2 cm long.

N.; S.: throughout lowland N.Z., to nearly 1000 m on Mt Tarawera in the North Id and to 500 m in the Amuri Range in the South Id, probably commonest N. of the Waikato, but even occasionally reported from the wettest western areas (e.g., Big Bay in westernmost Otago).

Coastal California 1904

Usually only a minor escape from cultivation in open or much disturbed sites in the vicinity of planted trees, occasionally extensively naturalised in scrub and herbaceous vegetation on slopes down-wind from plantations or forests.

P. radiata is by far the most important timber tree in N.Z. and is the usual sp. planted for shelter as well, so much so that there are few settled areas where its dark green crowns are not a characteristic feature of the landscape. In view of its success and abundance in cultivation throughout lowland N.Z. it is perhaps surprising that it is not more extensively naturalised. It has been previously known as P. insignis in N.Z.

Radiata pine or Monterey pine varies greatly and wild plants include all but some of the more extreme forms in cultivation. Spontaneous hybrids with a closely related sp. from coastal California, P. attenuata Lemmon, knobcone pine, are recorded in N.Z. [Weston, G. C., Exotic Forest Trees in New Zealand (1957)]. Plants attributable to this hybrid, P. ×attenuradiata Stockwell et Righter, have very strongly reflexed cones which lie parallel to the branch, and the umbos erect and then inflexed. P. attenuata is not known to regenerate naturally in N.Z. and is readily distinguished by the persistent asymmetric yellowish cone with very large, convex spiny apophyses on the upper side.