Bhutan Pine

Pinus wallichiana var. parva K. C. Sahni (Indian J. Forest. 12(1): 40. 1989) was described from SE Xizang, where it apparently grows in temperate rainforests with species of Rhododendron at ca. 3000 m. It is an insufficiently understood taxon, known only from the type, which was not seen by the authors. It is said to differ from typical P. wallichiana as follows: needles mostly less than 11 cm; seed cones straight (not curved), smaller (ca. 10 cm); seeds smaller (ca. 3 mm); wing shorter (ca. 10 mm).

The timber is used for construction, furniture, and for producing turpentine.

Trees upto 30m tall. Bark grey, scaly. Branches whorled. Leaves acicular, in clusters of 5, 10-20 cm long, bluish to grey-green. Male cones 1-1.5 cm long, in dense clusters. Female cones 2-3 at the tips of branches, 15-30 cm long, elongated, dropping, + woody; megasporophyll broadly obvate, tip not beaked. Wing 2-3 times as long as the seed.

Trees to 70 m tall; trunk to 1 m or more d.b.h.; bark dark gray-brown, minutely scaly and flaking; crown broadly pyramidal; 1st-year branchlets green (drying red-brown), shiny, faintly whitish bloomed, glabrous; winter buds red-brown, cylindric-obovoid or cylindric-conical, slightly resinous. Needles 5 per bundle, pendulous, slender, triangular in cross section, (6-)11-18(-20) cm × ca. 1 mm, soft, adaxial surface dark green, vascular bundle 1, resin canals 3, adaxial 2 marginal, abaxial 1 always median. Seed cones pendulous, pedunculate (peduncle 2.5-4 cm), cylindric, straight or curved, 10-30 × 3-4 cm (5-9 cm wide when open), resinous. Seed scales cuneate-obovate, 3-5 × 2-3 cm at middle of cone; apophyses shiny, often glaucous, rhombic, slightly thickened; umbo dark brown, slightly projecting, apex obtuse, obviously incurved. Seeds brown or black-brown, ellipsoid-obovoid, 3-9 × 4-5 mm; wing 1-3 cm × 8-9 mm. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity autumn of 2nd year.

Afghanistan, Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Chitral eastward to W. Nepal.

S Xizang, NW Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim]

1800-3300 m

B-7 Hazara Distt, Bara Gali, Todd Nachovitz 172 (RAW); Changla Gali, 8-9000', R.R. Stewart 7937 (RAW) C-7 Rawalpindi & Islamabad Distt.: Kuldana, Z. Ali 4363 (RAW); Baltistan: Basho forest, Sakardu, 28.7.1986, H. Ali s.n. (PPFI-B)

Mountains, temperate rainforests; 1600-3300 m.

Pinus excelsa Wallich ex D. Don (1828), not Lamarck (1778); P. griffithii M’Clelland (1854), not (J. D. Hooker) Parlatore (1868); P. nepalensis Chambray (1845), not J. Forbes (1839).