- Tenasserim Pine
Taxobox
name = Tenasserim Pine
status = LR/nt | status_system = IUCN2.3
regnum =Plant ae
divisio =Pinophyta
classis = Pinopsida
ordo =Pinales
familia =Pinaceae
genus = "Pinus"
subgenus = "Pinus"
species = "P. latteri"
binomial = "Pinus latteri"
binomial_authority = MasonThe Tenasserim Pine ("Pinus latteri") is a
pine native to southeastAsia , in the mountains of southeasternMyanmar , northernThailand ,Laos ,Cambodia ,Vietnam , and on the Chinese island ofHainan . It generally occurs at moderate altitudes, mostly from 400-1000 m, but occasionally as low as 100 m and up to 1200 m.It is a medium-sized to large
tree , reaching 25-45 m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m. The bark is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, and thin and flaky in the upper crown. The leaves ('needles') are in pairs, moderately slender, 15-20 cm long and just over 1 mm thick, green to yellowish green. The cones are narrow conic, 6-14 cm long and 4 cm broad at the base when closed, green at first, ripening glossy red-brown. They open to 6-8 cm broad, often some time after maturity or following heating by forest fires, to release the seeds. The seeds are 7-8 mm long, with a 20-25 mm wing, and are wind-dispersed.Tenasserim Pine is closely related to
Sumatran Pine "Pinus merkusii", which occurs further south in southeast Asia inSumatra and thePhilippines ; some botanists treat the two as conspecific (under the name "P. merkusii", which was described first), but the Sumatran Pine differs in shorter (15-20 cm) and slenderer (under 1 mm thick) leaves, smaller cones with thinner scales, the cones opening at maturity, and seeds only half the weight. It is also related to the group ofMediterranean pines includingAleppo Pine andTurkish Pine , which share many features with it.The tree is named after Tenasserim (now Tanintharyi), the region of southern Myanmar on the
Kra Isthmus .References
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