''Pinus sibirica'', or Siberian pine, in the family

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 kn ...

is a species of

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

tree that occurs in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...

from 58°E in the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

east to 126°E in the

Stanovoy Range The Stanovoy Range (russian: Станово́й хребе́т, ''Stanovoy khrebet''; sah, Сир кура; ), is a mountain range located in the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District. It is also known as Sükebayatur a ...

in southern

Sakha Republic Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far E ...

, and from

Igarka Igarka (russian: Ига́рка) is a town in Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located north of the Arctic Circle. Igarka is a monotown established around a sawmill which processed timber logged in the basin of the Yenisei Riv ...

at 68°N in the lower

Yenisei The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...

valley, south to 45°N in central

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...

Description

''Pinus sibirica'' is a member of the white pine group, ''

Pinus 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 ...

'' subgenus ''

Strobus '' Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been furthe ...

'', and like all members of that group, the leaves ('needles') are in fascicles (bundles) of five, with a deciduous sheath. They are 5–10 cm long. Siberian pine cones are 5–9 cm long. The 9–12 mm long

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosper ...

s have only a vestigial wing and are dispersed by

spotted nutcracker The spotted nutcracker, Eurasian nutcracker, or simply nutcracker (''Nucifraga caryocatactes'') is a passerine bird slightly larger than the Eurasian jay. It has a much larger bill and a slimmer looking head without any crest. The feathering over ...

s. Siberian pine is treated as a variety or subspecies of the very similar Swiss pine (''Pinus cembra'') by some botanists. It differs in having slightly larger cones, and needles with three

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on nat ...

canals instead of two in Swiss pine. Like other European and

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 are ...

n white pines, Siberian pine is very resistant to white pine blister rust (''Cronartium ribicola''). This fungal disease was accidentally introduced from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

into

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, where it has caused severe mortality in the American native white pines in many areas, notably the closely related

whitebark pine ''Pinus albicaulis'', known by the common names whitebark pine, white bark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine ...

. Siberian pine is of great value for research into hybridisation and genetic modification to develop rust resistance in these species. File:Flowering pine cones.png, Flowering pine cones Pinus sibirica cone and shoots PAN.JPG, Cone File:Pinus sibirica Sosna syberyjska 2020-07-23 01.jpg, Foilage File:Seeds of Pinus sibirica.jpg, seeds

Distribution

In the north of its range, it grows at low altitudes, typically 100–200 m, whereas further south, it is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

tree, growing at 1,000-2,400 m altitude. It often reaches the alpine tree line in this area. The mature size is up to 30–40 m height, and 1.5 m trunk diameter. Its maximum lifetime is 800–850 years. File:Улаганский перевал - panoramio - Tanya Dedyukhina (3).jpg, ''Pinus sibirica'' Ulagansky Pass near Ulagan, Russia File:Ергаги 07.jpg, ''Pinus sibirica'' in Ergaki, Ermakovskiy district

Cultivation

Siberian pine, ''Pinus sibirica'', is a popular

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

s and large

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s where the

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

is cold, such as central

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, giving steady though not fast growth on a wide range of sites. It is very tolerant of severe winter cold, hardy down to at least –60 °C, and also of wind exposure. The seeds are also harvested and sold as

pine nut Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trad ...

s, which in Russia are marketed as ''Cedar nuts'' (russian: Кедровые орехи).

"Siberian cedar"

The Russian name Сибирский кедр ( tr. Sibirsky kedr) is usually translated in English as “Siberian cedar.” References to “cedar” or "dwarf cedar" in texts translated from Russian usually refer to this tree or related pines, not to true cedars.

Chemistry

Pinostilbene is a stilbenoid found, along with

resveratrol Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-''trans''-stilbene) is a stilbenoid, a type of natural phenol, and a phytoalexin produced by several plants in response to injury or when the plant is under attack by pathogens, such as bacteria or fungi. Sourc ...

, in the bark of ''P. sibirica''.Hydroxystilbenes from the bark of Pinus sibirica. N. A. Tyukavkina, A. S. Gromova, V. I. Lutskii and V. K. Voronov, Chemistry of Natural Compounds, September 1972, Volume 8, Issue 5, pages 570-572,

References

External links

Pinetum.org: ''Pinus sibirica'' cone picture
- (''scroll to bottom of page'') * {{Taxonbar, from=Q774829 Edible nuts and seeds Flora of Mongolia Flora of Northeast Asia Flora of Russia Garden plants of Asia Least concern plants Ornamental trees Sibirica Trees of continental subarctic climate Trees of Russia Trees of Siberia