Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Pinaceae
Genus: Pinus
Subgenus: Pinus
Species: P. nigra
Binomial name: Pinus nigra
Synonyms: P. austriaca. P. laricio austriaca. P. nigra austriaca. P. nigricans.
Common names: Austrian Pine, Black Pine, European Black Pine
Pinus nigra is a moderately fast growing, variable species of pine, occurring across southern Mediterranean Europe from Spain to the eastern Mediterranean on Anatolian peninsula of Turkey and on Corsica/Cyprus, including Crimea, and in the high mountains of the Maghreb in North Africa.
Pinus nigra is a large coniferous evergreen tree, growing to 20–55 metres high at maturity. The trunk has lateral branches forming 90 degrees to the trunk. The bark is brown to grey, developing grey-brown ridges and dark brown furrows with age.
The thick, evergreen, crescent-shaped needles are 10 to 15 cm long, flexible and won't snap when bent double. There are two needles per fascicle.
Pinus nigra is monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, and both sexes can be found on the same plant) and is pollinated by wind.
The yellow male gametes (pollen cones) are cylindrical and they are in clusters along twigs. The ovulate cones are oval and are yellow to purple in colour. Both types of cones appear during spring to early summer.
The mature, ovoid, seed cones are 5–10 cm long, with rounded scales; they ripen from green to pale grey-buff or yellow-buff and mature in autumn. The umbo (the first year's growth) is armed with a very short, minute prickle.
The seeds are dark grey, 6–8 mm long, with a yellow-buff wing 20–25 mm long; they are wind-dispersed when the cones open.
Pinus nigra In New Zealand it is considered an invasive species and noxious weed, along with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), due to their habitat conversion nature in tussock grassland plant communities, shading out the native bunch grasses as their forest canopy develops.
Buds
Pollen cone.
Cones
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
