''Pinus cubensis'', or Cuban pine, is a

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 ...

endemic to the eastern highlands of the island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, inhabiting both Sierra Nipe- Cristal and

Sierra Maestra The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...

. The closely related Hispaniolan pine (''P. occidentalis''), native to the neighboring island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and t ...

, is treated as

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

by some botanists. Modern systematic studies recognize ''P. cubensis'' it as a valid species,Farjon, A. 1997: ''Pinus (Pinaceae)'',

Flora Neotropica ''Flora Neotropica'' is a series of monographs published by the New York Botanical Garden Press, and is the official publication of the Organization for Flora Neotropica. It covers the taxonomic treatment of American plants and plant families ...

, Monograph 75 (together with Brian T. Styles). New York : The New York Botanical Garden. nevertheless, there is disagreement about whether the Sierra Maestra populations in the south are part of ''P. cubensis'' or conform another species named ''P. maestrensis''.López-Almirall A. 1982. Variabilidad del Género ''Pinus'' (Coniferales: Pinaceae) en Cuba. ''Acta Botánica Cubana'' 12: 1–32. The Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra population may have diverged recently, as indicated by recent genetic studies that have found some ancestral genetic lineages that are shared among the two regions and only some rare variants exclusive for each region.Jardón-Barbolla, L., Delgado-Valerio, P., Geada-López, G., Vázquez-Lobo, A., & Pinero D. (2011). Phylogeography of ''Pinus'' subsection ''Australes'' in the Caribbean Basin. ''Annals of Botany'' 107: 229-241.

References

External links

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''Pinus cubensis'' description (Gymnosperm Database)
Least concern plants Cubensis Trees of Cuba Plants described in 1863 {{conifer-stub