Flora of New Zealand Series

Corsican pine

Medium-sized to large tree, generally with a rather narrow-conic to columnar habit, at least when young, and with slender crown and sparse shoot branches. Lvs generally in moderately dense clusters ± concentrated towards shoot apices, sometimes more open, moderately thick, somewhat flexible, light green, with thickened hypodermal cells usually in 1-2 rows; apex not very pungent.

N.; S.

Corsica, Sicily, S. Italy 1925

Around forests, plantations and shelter belts, sometimes spreading downwind for many kilometres into scrub and grassland.

In some inland parts of the South Id, e.g., the Amuri Range (N. Canterbury), Rakaia Valley (C. Canterbury), Mackenzie County (S. Canterbury), Corsican pine is aggressive and has invaded many hectares of scrub and grassland. The cones are very freely produced and often large quantities of viable seed are formed, even on fairly young trees. There are thousands of hectares of this sp. in state forests from N. Auckland to Southland, particularly in cooler areas such as the Rotorua-Taupo area and inland Canterbury. This subsp. has been known previously in N.Z. as P. nigra var. maritima and was first recorded as P. laricio.