Pinus strobus L.
strobus pine
Small to large tree, pyramidal at least until after maturity, with crown irregular later. Bark smooth, greyish green until fully developed then rough towards base. Shoots brown or greenish brown, usually somewhat puberulent at first, latter glabrous except for tuft of hairs beneath insertion of lf fascicles, sometimes completely glabrous. Buds narrow-ovoid, greenish, not resinous; scales with free acuminate apices. Foliage in dense masses towards branch ends. Lvs 5 per fascicle, 4-13 cm × 0.5-0.7 mm, soft and tending to droop; resin canals marginal; sheaths deciduous by mid-summer. ♂ strobili < 1 cm long, narrow-cylindric. Conelets stalked, cylindric; scales rounded or obtuse. Cone stalks ± recurved, to 2 cm long. Mature cones solitary, deciduous, falling intact, 7-16 × 3-5 cm when open, cylindric, ± symmetric but often curved, yellowish brown, somewhat tapering towards apex; scales thin, flexible; apophyses rounded; umbo smooth; scar very resinous. Seed wing narrow, to c. 1.5 cm long.
N.: Rotorua area (Waimangu Valley, Rainbow Mountain and around Waiotapu); S.: Nelson (Stanley Brook area), N. Canterbury (Hanmer area).
Eastern N. America 1957
Naturalised in scrub and modified forest, an occasional escape from cultivation.
Strobus pine is mostly cultivated in state forests, especially in the Rotorua area. In addition to the subgeneric characters mentioned earlier, it can be easily distinguished from any other naturalised pine here by the mainly smooth trunk, and the needles green above, bluish below and broadly triangular in cross section.
Although P. strobus is the usual sp. in subgen. Haploxylon to be seen in plantations in N.Z., the related P. wallichiana A. B. Jackson, Bhutan pine or Himalayan blue pine, is more commonly cultivated in parks and domains. P. wallichiana frequently sets viable seed, but has not been reported regenerating. It has glabrous shoots and longer needles and cones than P. strobus.
