Pinus brutia

Pinus brutia is a medium-sized tree, reaching tall with a trunk diameter of up to , exceptionally . The young bark is thin and red-orange, maturing to grey-brown to orange, fissured to flaky in texture. The leaves are needle-like, slender, long, dark green to yellow-green. The needles are in fascicles of two, or rarely three. The male cones are squat, long. The female cones are short, with rigid, woody scales, long, broad, maturing from green to red-orange; occasional specimens show similarities in cone structure to the related Pinus canariensis. They most often appear in whorls of 3 to 4, and mature in two years after pollination. The seeds are usually wind dispersed, dropping from the cones after they open, but some trees have been observed with cones that do not open enough to facilitate wind dispersal. The Krüper's nuthatch may assist these trees in dispersal. File:Pine trees in Yamanlardağı Nature Park.jpg|Forest in Yamanlardağı Nature Park, Karşıyaka, İzmir, Turkey File:Pinus brutia kz1.jpg|Mature bark showing red-brown fissures File:Pinus brutia - Turkish pine 01.jpg|Closed cones and foliage, Adana, Turkey File:Pinus brutia - cones - Flickr - S. Rae.jpg|Open cones, Argaka, Cyprus File:Pinus brutia - Turkish pine, Pollen cones 03.jpg| Male (pollen) cones File:Pinus brutia, Findikli 0.jpg|An old specimen from Adana Province, Turkey ==Taxonomy==

The Italian botanist Michele Tenore described the species in 1811. While Tenore did not provide an explanation for the specific epithet, it was likely named after the historical region of Brut(t)ium, now Calabria, where an introduced population has become naturalised. Varieties • Pinus brutia var. brutia: Typical form, with needles long. Found across the Eastern Mediterranean. Often treated as a subspecies of P. brutia, Due to its tolerance of drought and poor soil, it is widely planted as an ornamental tree in southern Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the southwestern United States. ==Distribution and habitat==

The bulk of its range is in Turkey, but it also extends to southeasternmost Bulgaria, the East Aegean Islands of Aegean Sea, Crete, Crimea, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, western Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus. Its presence in the eastern Mediterranean is hypothesised to date only from the nineteenth century, and is predominantly due to human activity. It is not native to Israel, but was introduced there in the 1930s. It generally occurs at low altitudes, mostly from sea level to in northern Turkey, up to in the south of its range. ==Ecology==

Pinus brutia is a diagnostic species of the vegetation class Pinetea halepensis. The Krüper's nuthatch, a rare nuthatch, is largely restricted to forests of Turkish pine and depends heavily on it for feeding; the ranges of the two species are largely coincident. P. brutia is resistant to the Israeli pine bast scale insect Matsucoccus josephi and is a major host for Thaumetopoea caterpillars. The species covers in Cyprus, roughly ~90% of all woodland coverage on the island. It forms ectomycorrhizal associations with numerous species of fungi, and its logs and branches are excellent substrates for many kinds of decomposing organisms. ==Uses==

Honey Turkish pine is host to a sap-sucking aphid Marchalina hellenica. Under normal circumstances, this insect does no significant damage to the pine, but is of great importance for the excess sugar it secretes. This sugar, "honeydew", is collected by honey bees which make it into a richly flavoured and valuable honey, "pine honey" (Turkish, çam balı), with reputed medicinal benefits. Landmark The "Lone Pine", a prominent landmark tree at an ANZAC First World War battle at Gallipoli, was this species. Cones from the battlefield were taken home to Australia, and plants sourced from the seeds were planted as living memorials. "Lone Pine" memorials, based on cones brought back from Gallipoli, may use this species or Aleppo pine. Some memorials utilise other species altogether. Forestry It is widely planted for timber, both in its native area (it is the most important tree in forestry in Turkey and Cyprus) and elsewhere in the Mediterranean region east to Pakistan. The timber is used for many purposes including carpentry, industry, general constructions, firewood and pulp. In Israel it is sometimes preferred to the more widely-used Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) because of its resistance to Matsucoccus josephi. It is also known for being well suited to recreational sites. Cultivation Pinus brutia is a popular ornamental tree, extensively planted in parks and gardens in hot dry areas (such as southern California, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada, as well as throughout Arizona 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 the Southwestern United States. In this region, P. brutia subsp. eldarica is referred to as "Eldarica pine", "Afghan pine" or "Mondell pine" (after Mondell Bennett, a commercial tree grower in New Mexico who popularised the species starting in 1969). ==References==