Coulter pine seed

Coulter pine Pinus coulteri

The tree is 35 meters high. Branches are thick, whorled arranged, prostrate, form a rare transparent wide-conical crown. The bark is thick, almost black. The shoots are thick, with a bluish-white bloom, then orange-brown. Buds elongate-ovate, long pointed, 4 cm long, resinous, with tightly pressed scales. Needles crowded at the ends of shoots, remaining 2-3 years, very dense, prickly, protruding and curved, bluish-green, 25-30 cm long and 2 mm wide; vagina up to 40 cm long.

Cones on short petioles, downward facing, ovate, 25-35 cm long and 10-12 cm wide, light yellow-brown, not opening and long remaining, on the tree; shields highly pyramidally swollen and elongated into a long hook-shaped tip bent to the base of the cone. The seeds are oval black, 18-22 mm long and 10 mm wide, with a long wing, thickened from the bottom to the middle, and thin at the top. In 1 kg 3 thousand seeds.

Homeland: North America; mountains of Baja California and in the southern part of the Coastal mountains North to the mountains of Santa Lucia and Mente Diablo at an altitude of 800-1,500 meters.

In Europe since 1832. In Russia introduced in 1858 Nikitsky garden, where there are several copies. The oldest, aged about 100 years, is 13 meters high and 52 cm in diameter. Occasionally found in other parks of the southern Crimea. In the South the Crimea is growing, drought-resistant; fruiting is rare, but forms a good viable seeds. On impenetrable heavy clay and calcareous soils grows worse and suffers from chlorosis.

It occurs on the black sea coast of the Caucasus from Sochi to the South, where there are also well-growing large specimens. Very decorative and peculiar pine, outstanding for its large and heavy cones. It is of great interest for parks in the South of Russia. It should be tested in the southern part of Central Asia and in the arid regions of Eastern Transcaucasia, especially along the coast of the Caspian sea.