''Pinus merkusii'', the Merkus pine or Sumatran pine, is a

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

native to the

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, and also a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical Kingdom. It has been given different definitions. The ...

region of southeast

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and the only one that occurs naturally south of the equator.

Description

''Pinus merkusii'' is a medium-sized to large

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated Plant stem, stem, or trunk (botany), trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondar ...

, reaching tall and with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, and thin and flaky in the upper crown. The

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

('needles') are in pairs, very slender, long and less than thick, green to yellowish green. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

are narrow conic, long and broad at the base when closed, green at first, ripening glossy red-brown. They open to 4–5 cm broad at maturity to release the seeds. The seeds are long, with a wing, and are wind-dispersed.

Related species

''Pinus merkusii'' is closely related to the Tenasserim pine (''P. latteri''), which occurs farther north in southeast Asia from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

; some botanists treat the two as conspecific (under the name ''P. merkusii'', which was described first), but ''P. latteri'' differs in longer () and stouter (over 1 mm thick) leaves and larger cones with thicker scales, the cones often remaining closed for some time after maturity. It is also related to the group of

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

pines including

Aleppo pine ''Pinus halepensis'', commonly known as the Aleppo pine, also known as the Jerusalem pine, is a pine native to the Mediterranean region. Description ''Pinus halepensis'' is a small to medium-sized tree, tall, with a trunk diameter up to , exce ...

and

Turkish pine ''Pinus brutia'', commonly known as the Turkish pine, is a species of pine native to the eastern Mediterranean region. The bulk of its range is in Turkey. Turkish pine is also known by several other common names: Calabrian pine (from a naturalis ...

, which share many features with it.

Distribution

It can be found mainly in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

in the mountains of northern

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent is ...

, and with two outlying populations in central Sumatra on

Mount Kerinci Mount Kerinci (also spelled Kerintji, among several other ways, and referred to as Gunung Kerinci, Gadang, Berapi Kurinci, Kerinchi, Korinci/Korintji, or Peak of Indrapura/Indrapoera) is an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain in Sumatra ...

and Mount Talang, and in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ) and has a population of 1,408,454 as of 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of Luz ...

and in the Zambales Mountains on western

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, a ...

. The population in central Sumatra, between 1° 40' and 2° 06' S latitude, is the only natural occurrence of any member of the

Pinaceae The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, formerly know ...

south of the

Equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can al ...

. It generally occurs at moderate altitudes, mostly , but occasionally as low as and up to .

References

Merkusii Trees of Sumatra Trees of the Philippines Vulnerable plants {{conifer-stub