Pinus armandii

Franchet 1884

Common names

华山松 hua shan song [Chinese]; Chinese white pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: P. dabeshanensis, P. masteriana. One variety, mastersiana. P. amamiana was formerly described as a variety of P. armandii.

For discussion of systematics relative to other species in subsection Strobus, see Phylogeny of East Asian white pines.

Description

Trees to 35m tall and 100 cm dbh. Conical in young trees with whorled branching, with age becoming rounded and irregularly branched. Bark smooth, brownish-gray, with age becoming platy and fissured, blackish brown to grayish red brown, covered by thin, loosely appressed small scales; outer bark about 8 mm thick, inner bark 8-l5 mm thick, pale reddish white, finely fibrous. Needles in fascicles of 5, the sheath soon deciduous; slender, 8-15 cm long, 1-1.5 mm thick, serrulate, bright green, triangular in cross section, with 1 vascular bundle and 3 resin ducts, one medial, two marginal. Pollen cones in spiral clusters at the base of new shoots, 1.5-2.5 cm long, greenish white with a reddish tip. Seed cones in 1's and 2's, erect becoming pendulous from stout 2-3 cm long peduncles, 8-14 cm long, conical-cylindric, often resinous, green maturing golden brown, falling after seeds have dispersed. Cone scales rigid, 3-4 x 2.5-3 cm, apophysis triangular or rhombic, thickened; umbo obtuse, darker than scale, without a prickle. Seed obovoid, 10-15 mm long, wingless (Liu 1970, Farjon 2010). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

China: S Gansu, C and NW Guizhou, Hainan, SW Henan, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, S Shanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan at 900-3,500 m; N and C Taiwan at altitudes of 2,300-3,000 m; N Myanmar; usually in mixed conifer forests with species of Abies, Picea, Pseudotsuga and (in SW China) Larix; often on thin, rocky soils (Liu 1970, Wu and Raven 1999, Farjon 2010). The trees in Taiwan are var. mastersiana; all others are var. armandii.

Hardy to Zone 7 (cold hardiness limit between -17.7°C and -12.2°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

The oldest known specimen, 634 years, was documented in a tree-ring chronology covering the period 1359-2005 (crossdated after 1432), collected east of Xian, China by Shao X. M. (doi.org/10.25921/8scg-rq35). I suspect this tree was alive when sampled in 1992. This site was used in a dendroclimatic temperature reconstruction (PAGES 2k Consortium 2013).

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2023.11.03.

Observations

No data as of 2023.11.03.

Remarks

Citations

Franchet, A.R. 1884. Plantae davidianae ex sinarum imperio. Part I. Plantes de Mongolie du nord et du centre de la Chine. Coniferae. T. VII, pp. 285-293, pl. 12-14. Paris.

PAGES 2k Consortium. 2013. Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia. Nature Geoscience 6:339-346. doi: 10.1038/NGEO1797

See also

Elwes and Henry 1906-1913 at the Biodiversity Heritage Library. This series of volumes, privately printed, provides some of the most engaging descriptions of conifers ever published. Although they only treat species cultivated in the U.K. and Ireland, and the taxonomy is a bit dated, still these accounts are thorough, treating such topics as species description, range, varieties, exceptionally old or tall specimens, remarkable trees, and cultivation. Despite being over a century old, they are generally accurate, and are illustrated with some remarkable photographs and lithographs.

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.