Pinus mugo Seeds | Mugo Pine
LATIN NAME: Pinus mugo
COMMON NAME: Mugo Pine
Plant Profile
Pinus mugo is the pine of the alpine scrub, and in the mountains it forms a low, sprawling thicket rather than a tree. The trunks are often prostrate and root where they touch the ground, and a plant that is a metre high can be a hundred years old. The needles are in pairs, short and stiff, and the cones are small, asymmetrical and often clustered against the stem.
The species grows in the Alps, the Carpathians and the Balkans, usually above the tree line on limestone and on acid rock, where snow lies late and the wind is constant. It is one of the most variable pines in Europe, and the upright form from the eastern Alps is sometimes treated as a separate subspecies, P. mugo uncinata, which grows as a tree to twenty metres.
Science & Biotechnology
The shrub habit is an adaptation to snow and to grazing. A low, flexible plant is buried rather than broken by avalanches, and it spreads by layering where branches are pinned to the ground. The same habit made the species useful for stabilising slopes, and it was planted widely in the Alps in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to hold soil above villages.
Mugo pine is also one of the parents of the dwarf pines sold in gardens. Most of the compact forms in the trade are selections of P. mugo, chosen for a dense, rounded habit and for slow growth, and they are grafted or rooted from cuttings. The species itself is variable enough that seed-grown plants can become small trees, which is why named cultivars matter.
Uses & Benefits
The wood is resinous and used for fuel and for small construction, and the resin was tapped for turpentine. The tree is planted for slope stabilisation, for shelter and as an ornamental, and the dwarf forms are among the most useful shrubs for a small garden or a container.
In alpine practice the needles are used for a bath and for a chest rub, and the resin is used as a plaster. The young cones are collected for a liqueur in parts of the Alps, and the pollen is gathered as a supplement, though none of these is a significant trade.
Growing from Seed
Seed germinates without pretreatment but slowly. Sow in spring at 18 degrees, and expect seedlings over four to six weeks. The dwarf forms are propagated by grafting onto P. mugo rootstock in winter, or by cuttings taken in late summer, since seed does not come true.
The plant wants full sun and sharp drainage, and it tolerates lime, wind and cold to about minus thirty-five. It does not tolerate shade or wet ground, and it resents being crowded by other plants. Plant dwarf forms in a raised bed or in a large container with grit in the mix, and do not feed them heavily, since rich soil produces loose, open growth.
Our Take
The best small pine for a garden, provided you buy a named dwarf form and give it sharp drainage and full sun.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Mugo Pine often pair it with these related subjects: