Scientific name: Pinus sibirica Du Tour 1803

Synonyms: Pinus arolla Petrov, Pinus cembra f. coronans (Litv.) Krylov, Pinus cembra var. sibirica (Du Tour) A.E.Murray, Pinus cembra subsp. sibirica (Du Tour) Krylov, Pinus coronans Litv., Pinus hingganensis H.J.Zhang

Common names: Siberian pine, Siberian stone pine, Kedr sibirskii (Russian)

Description

Tree to 35(-40) m tall, or shrubby at the alpine timberline. Trunk to 1(-1.8) m in diameter. Bark light brown or grayish brown, flaking and becoming deeply and narrowly ridged and furrowed at the base of large trees. Crown dense, conical at first, becoming broadly and deeply domed with age, with numerous upwardly angled branches bearing dense foliage near the ends. Twigs yellowish brown, densely covered with pale rusty hairs. Buds 7-10 mm long, not resinous. Needles in bundles of five, each needle (5-)7-10(-13) cm long, stiff and somewhat twisted, usually lasting 2-5 years, dark green and without stomates on the outer face, grayish green with wax on the inner faces. Individual needles with lines of stomates on the inner faces, an undivided midvein, and three resin canals deep inside the leaf tissue at the corners of the needles. Sheath 15-20 mm long, soon shed. Pollen cones 10-20 mm long, red. Seed cones held upright, (5-)6-12(-13) cm long, elongate egg-shaped, with 50-60 seed scales, purple before maturity, ripening purplish brown, remaining closed or gaping slightly without releasing the seeds and shed the next year, short-stalked. Seed scales irregularly circular, somewhat fleshy at the base, a little thickened at the tip and ending in a small but distinct triangular umbo, densely covered with flattened-down hairs. Seed body 10-14 mm long, plumply egg-shaped, wingless.

Primarily Siberian (hence the common and scientific names), from the Ural Mountains east to the southern Lena River (with isolated stands, in the Kola Peninsula of northwestern Russia) south to the Altai Mountains of Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, and northern China (Xinjiang province), to central Mongolia, and to northeastern China (northwestern Heilongjiang and northeastern Nei Mongol). Growing alone or mixed with other trees in a wide range of habitats, from peat bogs and grassy plains to dry foothill slopes and subalpine screes; (100-)800-2,000(-2,400) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

(Pinus sibirica is too widespread and abundant to be considered for any threatened category and is therefore assessed as Least Concern)

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.

Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland