Pinus pinaster, the maritime pine is a pine native to the south Atlantic Europe region and parts of the western Mediterranean. It is a fast growing hard pine with long needles and large cones with medium-sized seeds with large wings.
Description
Pinus pinaster is a medium-sized tree, reaching 20–35 metres (66–115 feet) tall, exceptionally to 41 m (135 ft), with a trunk diameter of up to 1.2 m (4 ft), exceptionally 1.9 m (6 ft). The bark is orange-red, thick, and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, somewhat thinner in the upper crown. The leaves ('needles') are in pairs, 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, very stout (2 mm (0.079 in) broad), and bluish-green to distinctly yellowish-green. The maritime pine features the longest and most robust needles of all European pine species. The cones are conic, 8–22 cm (3–8+1⁄2 in) long and 4–6 cm (1+1⁄2–2+1⁄2 in) broad at the base when closed, green at first, ripening glossy red-brown when 24 months old. They open slowly over the next few years, or after being heated by a forest fire, to release the seeds, opening to 8–12 cm (3–4+1⁄2 in) broad. The seeds are 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) long, shiny black above, matt grey-brown below, and with a 20–25 mm (0.79–0.98 in) wing; they are wind-dispersed.
Taxonomy Maritime pine is closely related to Turkish pine, Canary Island pine and Aleppo pine, which all share many features with it. It is a relatively non-variable species, with constant morphology over the entire range. Despite this, three subspecies are accepted by the Plants of the World Online database, though not all authors consider them distinct:
Pinus pinaster subsp. pinaster – Atlantic Europe Pinus pinaster subsp. escarena (Risso) K.Richt. – Mediterranean Europe Pinus pinaster subsp. renoui (Villar) Maire – Northwest Africa (Atlas Mountains)
Distribution and habitat Its range is in the western Mediterranean Basin and the southern Atlantic coast of Europe, extending from central Portugal and Northern Spain (especially in Galicia) to southern and Western France, east to western Italy, Croatia and south to northern Tunisia, Algeria and northern Morocco. It favours a Mediterranean climate, with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. North of its native range, it is also naturalised (and locally invasive) in southern England. It generally occurs at low to moderate altitudes, mostly from sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft), but up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in the south of its range in Morocco. The high degree of fragmentation in the current natural distribution is caused by two factors: the discontinuity and altitude of the mountain ranges causing isolation of even close populations, and human activity.
Ecology Dispersal, habitat loss, and fecundity are all factors that affect spread rate. The species favours acidic soils with medium to high-density vegetation, but it can also grow in basic soils and even in sandy and poor soils, where only few commercial species can grow. Pinus pinaster is a diagnostic species of the vegetation class Pinetea halepensis.
Pests Larvae of the moth Dioryctria sylvestrella feed on this pine. Their boring activity causes large quantities of resin to flow from the wounds which weakens the tree and allows fungi and other pathogens to gain entry. Pestalotiopsis pini (a species of ascomycete fungi), was found as an emerging pathogen on Pinus pinea L. (stone pine) and also on Pinus pinaster in Portugal. Evidence of shoot blight and stem necrosis were found in 2020. The fungus was found on needles, shoots and trunks of the pines.
Invasiveness Pinus pinaster is a popular topic in invasion ecology because of its problematic growth and spread in South Africa for the past 150 years after being imported into the region at the end of the 17th century (1685–1693). It was found spreading in the Cape Peninsula by 1772. Towards the end of the 18th century (1780), P. pinaster was widely planted, and at the beginning of the 19th century (1825–1830), P. pinaster was planted commercially as a timber resource and for the forestry industry. The pine tree species invades large areas and more specifically fynbos vegetation. Fynbos vegetation is a fire-prone shrubland vegetation that is found in the southern and southwest cape of South Africa. It is found in greater abundance close to watercourses.
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