Pinus koraiensis

Siebold et Zuccarini 1842

Common names

Korean cedar, Korean pine; 잣나무 [Korean]; チョウセンゴヨウ chosen-goyo, chosen-matsu [Japanese]; 红松 hong song [Chinese]; Корейский кедр [Russian].

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Pinus strobus Thunb. 1784 non L., Pinus mandschurica Rupr. 1857, Pinus cembra var. mandschurica (Rupr.) Carr. 1867, Strobus koraiensis (Sieb. et Zucc.) Moldenke 1939, Apinus koraiensis (Sieb. et Zucc.) Moldenke 1952, Pinus prokoraiensis Zhao et al. 1990 (Farjon 1998).

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

Description

Monoecious, evergreen trees up to 30 m tall and 150 cm dbh. Bark gray-brown, smooth, on larger trees turning gray-black, scaly, peeling. Shoots red-brown, densely puberulent. Cataphylls alternate, imbricate near base of short shoots, red-brown, membranaceous, oblong or linear-oblong, apex obtuse, 5-15 mm long, deciduous. Needles in fascicles of 5 at end of short shoot, 6-13 cm × 1 mm, triangular in transverse section, dark green on outer face, two inner faces whitish green with stomata; resin canals 3, marginal near the angles. Flowers axillary. Pollen cones crowded at base of new shoots, ellipsoid. Female cones crowded near end of new shoots in groups of 1-5, conelets green, ovoid. Cones on a short peduncle, ovoid or cylindric-ovoid, 9-11 × 5-6 cm, green [?]; scales woody, broadly rhomboid, ca. 2.5 cm long and wide, green on upper half, brown on lower half, apex with recurved spiny boss [apophysis?]. Seeds large, thickly triangular-obovoid, wingless, ca. 15 mm long, 10 mm across, 7 mm thick. Flowers in May, cones mature in October of the following year. 2n = 24 (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). See also, Wu and Raven (1999). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

NE Korea, Japan: C. Honshu southward from Tochigi Pref. and northward from Gifu Pref.) and Shikoku; the Ussuri River basin in China: Heilongjiang and Russia. In subalpine forests at elevations of 1300-2500 m (Iwatsuki et al. 1995). Ecologically similar to P. sibirica (Vladimir Dinets e-mail 1998.01.10). Hardy to Zone 3 (cold hardiness limit between -39.9°C and -34.4°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

A specimen 42 m tall occurs in the Ussuri Nat. Res. (Vladimir Dinets e-mail 1998.01.10).

The oldest known living specimen, 330 years, was documented in a tree-ring chronology covering the period 1657-1998 (crossdated after 1676), collected near Whachae Peak, South Korea by Won-Kyu Park, Jeongwook Seo, Yojung Kim, and Jin-Ho Lee (doi.org/10.25921/ensg-dr55).

Ethnobotany

The edible, nutritious seeds are locally harvested (Koen Camelbeke pers. comm. 2024.11.27).

Observations

No data as of 2023.11.03.

Remarks

The epithet refers to the species' occurrence in Korea.

Citations

Siebold, P.F. von and J.G. Zuccarini. 1842. Flora Japonica sive plantae, ... Leiden. Vol. 2(3), p. 28, t. 116.

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.

Farjon (1984).

Mirov (1967).