Species: Pinus halepensis

Family: Pinaceae

Common names: Aleppo pine; Pino carrasco (Spanish); Pi blanc (Catalan); Pin blanc ou Pin d'Alep (French)

Brief description: small to medium-sized tree, 15–25 m tall; it tend to retain the branched in the lower part of the trunk (no self-prunning). Yellowish green needels, in pairs, slander. Serotinous cones.

Distribution: Mediterranean. From Morocco and Spain north to southern France, Italy and Croatia, and east to Greece and northern Libya, with an outlying population (from where it was first described) in Syria (including Aleppo), Jordan and Palestine-Israel.

Habitat: It is generally found at low altitudes, mostly from sea level to 200 m forming crown-fire ecosystems, but can grow at an altitude of up to 1000 m in southern Spain, and up to 1700 m in the south, in Morocco and Algeria. In the lowlands it may grow in almost any place, sometimes forming (monospecific or mix) woodlands, but also dispersed in shrublands.

Regeneration: it has both serotinous and non-serotinous cones (and thin bark)

Uses and overuses: Often planted in many places, thus many of the woodlands are of anthropogenic origin. Seeds are used in the traditional Tunisian cusine for making flour (crushing to power the seed nuts, including the hard shell) used for preparing custard, ice creams, iogurts and other specialities.

Status: IUCN = Lower Risk / least concern [Red List]

Publications

• Pinosio, S., González-Martínez, S., Bagnoli, F., Cattonaro, F., Grivet, D., Marroni, F., Lorenzo, Z., Pausas, J.G., Verdú, M., Vendramin, G.G. 2014 First insights into the transcriptome and development of new genomic tools of a widespread circum-Mediterranean tree species, Pinus halepensis Mill. Molecular Ecology Resources 14: 846-856. [doi | pdf]
• Hernández-Serrano, A., Verdú, M., Santos-Del-Blanco, L., Climent, J., González-Martínez, S.C. & Pausas, J.G. 2014. Heritability and quantitative genetic divergence of serotiny, a fire-persistence plant trait. Annals of Botany 114: 571-577. [doi | pdf | suppl.]
• Hernández-Serrano A., Verdú M., González-Martínez S.C., Pausas J.G. 2013. Fire structures pine serotiny at different scales. American Journal of Botany 100 (12): 2349-2356. [doi | amjbot | pdf | supp.]
• Pausas, J.G., Ribeiro, E. & Vallejo, R. 2004. Post-fire regeneration variability of Pinus halepensis in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. Forest Ecology and Management 203: 251-259. [pdf | doi]
• Pausas, J.G., Ouadah, N., Ferran, A., Gimeno, T. & Vallejo, R. 2003. Fire severity and seedling establishment in Pinus halepensis woodlands, eastern Iberian Peninsula. Plant Ecol. 169: 205-213. [pdf | doi | Springer]