Pinus tecunumanii (Pinabete) description

Pinus tecunumanii

Eguiluz et J.P. Perry 1983

Common names

Pinabete, pino ocote, pino tecun uman [Spanish], Tecun Uman's pine, Tecunumanii pine.

Taxonomic notes

This species is in section Australes, and shares a subclade with Pinus herrerae, P. patula, and P. teocote. Type: Guatemala: Baja Yerapaz, Sierra de Chuacus, San Jéronimo, T. Eguiluz 2. Syn: P. patula subsp. tecunumanii (Eguiluz et J.P. Perry) Styles 1984.

As discussed below, the species' distribution is bimodal, with low- and high-elevation populations; the difference is reflected in molecular data, morphology, and ecology (Dvorak 2003).

Based on field evidence, P. tecunumanii is widely assumed to crossbreed with P. patula var. longipedunculata, P. oocarpa, and P. caribaea var. hondurensis. Artificial crosses have been made with these species, and also with P. elliottii (Dvorak 2003).

Description

Trees to 55 m tall and 140 cm dbh, typically with a single erect trunk and a crown of spreading or slightly ascending branches. Bark thin, reddish brown, with age thickening and turning gray-brown. Twigs rough, reddish brown, often glaucous. Cataphylls subulate, erose-ciliate at margins, scarious, brown. Vegetative buds oval-oblong to cylindrical; terminal bud 15-20 mm long, not resinous. Fascicle sheaths up to 25 mm long, orange-brown, later reduced to 12-18 mm, grey-brown. Leaves in fascicles of (3-)4(-5), persisting 2-3 years, lax and drooping, (14-)16-18(-25) cm long, 0.7-1(-1.3) mm thick, acute, bright green with stomata on all faces. Pollen cones ovoid-oblong to cylindrical, 15-20 × 5-6 mm, yellow when mature. Seed cones subterminal, in whorls of (1-)2-4, on (15-)20-25 mm long peduncles, semi-serotinous, persisting 1-3 years after shedding seeds, falling with peduncles attached. Mature cones ovoid, nearly symmetrical, (3.5-)4-7(-7.5) cm long. Seed scales thin woody, parting usually within 1-2 years after maturity, oblong, straight or slightly curved. Apophysis raised, transversely keeled, on proximal scales more or less gibbous, striate, dull light brown or slightly lustrous. Umbo dorsal, flat or slightly raised, with a minute, deciduous prickle, gray. Seeds obliquely ovoid, 4-7 × 2-4 mm, dark gray-brown with darker dots; wings articulate, 10-13 × 4-8 mm, gray-brown (Farjon 2010).

With regard to morphological differences, high-elevation trees achieve larger sizes (to 55 m tall and 140 cm dbh), typically with a single trunk, have a more flaky bark, and mostly produce 1-2 cones. The lower-elevation trees are smaller (to 30 m tall and 60 cm dbh), typically have a forked trunk, have a less flaky bark, and mostly produce 3-4 cones. The low-elevation trees are very similar to P. oocarpa, which is problematic since it also hybridizes with that species, as well as with several others (see Taxonomic notes) (Dvorak 2003).

Distribution and Ecology

Mexico: Oaxaca, Chiapas; Guatemala; Belize; Honduras; El Salvador; Nicaragua (Farjon 2010). It occupies tropical climates in areas that have 1000-3000 mm rainfall annually, with a November-May dry season. Its geographic range can be divided into two large population groups: high-elevation populations that occur from approximately 1500 to 2900 m elevation, and low-elevation populations that are found at 300 m to 1500 m (Dvorak 2003, Farjon 2010) (consequently it has the widest elevation range of any Central American pine). The high-elevation trees grow in moist montane cloud forests of Guatemala and Honduras, in areas with annual precipitation of 1500-3000 mm; common associates in the forest include Liquidambar styraciflua, P. ayacahuite, P. maximinoi, P. oocarpa, and Quercus spp. Abies guatemalensis and Hesperocyparis lusitanica also occur on these high mountain ridges. The low-elevation trees grow in pine and pine-oak forests and woodlands with annual rainfall of 1000-1800; common associates include P. occarpa, P. caribaea, and P. maximinoi (Dvorak 2003, Farjon 2010). For the lower-elevation trees, wildfire maintains this ecosystem, although humans have generally altered the fire frequency regime (in this region, usually increasing frequency). On the Atlantic slopes in Chiapas a mixed angiosperm forest with Liquidambar, Magnolia, Clethra, Carpinus, Symplocos, Quercus and many other species predominates, and Pinus tecunumanii and other pines occur on poorer sites or in early-seral forest and woodland (Farjon 2010).

Remarkable Specimens

Ethnobotany

Within its native range this is an economically important timber tree, largely used for sawn timber and other local wood products. It has high potential for productive plantation forestry in suitable climates and so has received considerable interest from foresters (Dvorak et al. 2000, 2001). Since 1980, P. tecunumanii has been the most widely tested Mexican and Central American pine in the tropics and subtropics, with more than 50 provenances (Dvorak 2003). Plantations have been established in South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Brazil, Colombia, and Australia: Queensland. The wood from both high- and low-elevation sources, when planted as an exotic, has proven to be acceptable for sawn timber, kraft, and thermomechanical pulp (Dvorak 2003). It is not khown to be used as an amenity tree (Farjon 2010).

Observations

In El Salvador, P. tecunumanii grows on Cerro el Pital at 1500-2500 m elevation, in mixed stands with Pinus pseudostrobus var. apulcensis (Fernando Tobar email 2008.11.12).

Also in El Salvador, on the highest peaks of Cerro Montecristo, you can find Pinus pseudostrobus var. pseudostrobus with Pinus tecunumanii. Also, on the highest part of the mountain in Quercus-dominated cloud forests, is the only place in El Salvador where Podocarpus oleifolius grows in the wild (Fernando Tobar email 2008.11.12).

Remarks

The epithet honors Tecún Umán, a Mayan chief who defended his homeland against the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th Century (Dvorak et al. 2000).

Styles and McCarter (1988) provide this anecdote: "The taxon was first described in 1953 by a German forest entomologist, F. Schwerdtfeger, who had been appointed by FAO to investígate an epidemic of Dendroctonus sp. beetle which was devastating the pine forests of Guatemala. On arrival he found his work hampered by the lack of information on the taxonomy and distribution of the natural pine forests of the region, and was therefore forced to study the systematics of the local pines before commencing his entomological work. The Tecun Uman pine was the only species he encountered that he could not fit into the then existing classification systems. In 1953 Schwerdtfeger published a very full account of his new pine as P. 'tecumumanii' (naming it after the last leader of the Quiche Indians in Guatemala who was killed in 1524 by Pedro de Alvarado of Spain during the conquest of the American Isthmus), clearly differentiating it from all the other local species." Unfortunately, Schwerdtfeger's (1953) description was not validly published (for a variety of reasons), and it remained for Egiluz and Perry (1983) to correct the error, maintaining Schwerdtfeger's name for the taxon.

Citations

Dvorak, W.S. 2003. Pinus tecunumanii. Species description in the Tropical Tree Seed Manual. Available https://rngr.net/publications/ttsm/species/PDF.2004-03-16.4045?searchterm=tecunumanii (accessed 2020.05.07).

Dvorak, W.S., G.R. Hodge, E.A. Gutiérrez, L.F. Osorio, F.S. Malan, and T.K. Stanger. 2000. Pinus tecunumanii. Pp. 188-209 in Conservation & Testing of Tropical & Subtropical Forest Tree Species by the CAMCORE Cooperative. Raleigh, NC: College of Natural Resources, NCSU.

Dvorak, W.S., G.R. Hodge and J.L. Romero. 2001. Results of twenty years of research on Pinus tecunumanii by the CAMCORE Cooperative, in Forest Genetic Resources No. 29. www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/Y2316E/y2316e02.htm, accessed 2011.02.25.

Eguiluz and J. P. Perry. 1983. Pinus tecunumanii: una especie neuva de Guatemala. Ciencia Forestal 8(41):3-22.

Farjon, Aljos. 2010. A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Schwerdtfeger, F. 1953. Informe al Gobierno de Guatemala sobre la entomología de Guatemala 1. Los Pinos de Guatemala. Informe FAO/ETAP. FAO, Rome, No. 202. 58 pp.

Styles, B. T. 1984. The identity of Schwerdtfeger's Central American pine. http://www.fao.org/3/R3812E/R3812E15.htm; also in Spanish at http://www.fao.org/3/R3812E/R3812S15.htm. Accessed 2020.05.07.

Styies, B. T., and P. S. McCarter. 1988. The Botany, Ecology, Distribution and Conservation status of Pinus patula ssp. tecunumanii in the Republic of Honduras. Ceiba 29(1):3–30.