Pine, Afghanistan

Pinus brutia subsp. eldarica is a medium-size tree, reaching 66–115 ft tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 3.3 ft, exceptionally to 6.6 ft. Pinus brutia, is a pine native to the eastern Mediterranean region. The bulk of its range is in Turkey, but it also extends to the East Aegean Islands of Greece, the Crimea, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, western Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus. It’s been naturalized successfully here because of a similar climate.

The LEAVES (‘needles’) are in pairs, slender, mostly 10-16 cm long, bright green to slightly yellowish green.

The CONES are stout, heavy and hard, 2.5-4.5 inches long and 1.5-2.0 inches broad at the base when closed, green at first, ripening glossy red-brown when 24 months old. They open slowly over the next year or two to release the SEEDS, opening to 2.0-3.25 inches broad. The seeds are 0.28-0.32 inches long, with a 0.60-0.79 inch wing, and are mainly wind-dispersed.

The BARK is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, and thin and flaky in the upper crown.

Pinus brutia is a popular ornamental tree, extensively planted in parks and gardens in hot dry areas (such as southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada and west and central Texas in the United States), where its considerable heat and drought tolerance is highly valued. The subspecies eldarica is the most drought tolerant form, used in Afghanistan, Iran and more recently in Arizona, California, and Texas. In the United States Pinus brutia subsp. eldarica is referred to as “Eldarica Pine”, “Afghan Pine”.