European black pine

Appearance

"Pinus nigra" is a large coniferous evergreen tree, growing to 20–55 metres high at maturity and spreading to 20 to 40 feet wide. The bark is grey to yellow-brown, and is widely split by flaking fissures into scaly plates, becoming increasingly fissured with age. The leaves are thinner and more flexible in western populations.

The ovulate and pollen cones appear from May to June. The mature seed cones are 5–10 cm long, with rounded scales; they ripen from green to pale grey-buff or yellow-buff in September to November, about 18 months after pollination. The seeds are dark grey, 6–8 mm long, with a yellow-buff wing 20–25 mm long; they are wind-dispersed when the cones open from December to April. maturity is reached at 15–40 years; large seed crops are produced at 2–5 year intervals.

"Pinus nigra" is moderately fast growing, at about 30–70 centimetres per year. It usually has a rounded conic form, that becomes irregular with age. The tree can be long-lived, with some trees over 500 years old. It needs full sun to grow well, is intolerant of shade, and is resistant to snow and ice damage.

File:Borovicová šiška.jpg|Foliage and cone of subsp. "nigra"
File:Austrian Pine Pinus nigra Bark Closeup 2000px.jpg|Bark of subsp. "laricio"

Naming

In the US and Canada, the European black pine is planted as a street tree, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and parks. Its value as a street tree is largely due to its resistance to salt spray and various industrial pollutants, and its intermediate drought tolerance. In the UK the tree is planted as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens. It is planted with great success as far north as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

In both the US and UK most of the specimens planted are from Austrian sources, the "Pinus nigra" subsp. "nigra" and "Pinus nigra" subsp. "nigra" var. "nigra" seed selections. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when demand for natural trees was extremely high, its rapid growth, deep green color and low cost made it briefly a popular Christmas tree, but the extreme length of the needles soon led to its fall from favor, and it has long since been abandoned in the US for that purpose.

"P. nigra" is planted for windbreaks and shelterbelts in the US, recommended for windbreaks in the Northern Great Plains on medium to deep moist or upland soils."Pinus nigra" has become naturalised in a few areas of the United States. In New Zealand it is considered an invasive species and noxious weed, along with lodgepole pine and Scots pine, due to their habitat conversion nature in tussock grassland plant communities, shading out the native bunch grasses as their forest canopy develops.

Distribution

"Pinus nigra" is a tree of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
The majority of the range is in Turkey. It is found in the higher elevations of the South Apennine mixed montane forests ecoregion in southern Italy and the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion in Sicily. There are remnant populations in the Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests ecoregion, and in the higher Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria.

It is found at elevations ranging from sea level to 2,000 metres, most commonly from 250–1,600 metres. Several of the varieties have distinct English names.

It has naturalized in parts of the midwestern states of the U.S, normally south of the normal native ranges of native pines.

Habitat

In Mediterranean Europe and the Anatolian Peninsula, trees usually associated with this species include Scots pine, Serbian spruce, Bosnian pine, Norway spruce, Taurus cedar, European silver fir and related firs. Several species of juniper, and various broadleaf trees are associates.

;Climate and provenance
"Pinus nigra" is a light-demanding species, intolerant of shade but resistant to wind and drought.
The eastern "P. nigra" subsp. "nigra" exhibits greater winter frost hardiness than the western "P. nigra" subsp. "salzmannii".

Different provenances or varieties are adapted to different soil types: Austrian and Pyrenees origins grow well on a wide range of soil types, Corsican origins grows poorly on limestone, while Turkish and Crimean origins grow well on limestone. Most provenances also show good growth on podzolic soils.