Pinus classification

Pinus, the Pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera, subgenus Pinus (Diploxylon pines or Hard pines), and subgenus Strobus (Haploxylon pines or Soft pines). Each of the subgenera have several sections within based on chloroplast DNA sequencing. Older classifications split the genus with three subgenera, Pinus (Pinus), Pinus (Strobus), and Pinus (Ducampopinus) (Pinyon, Bristlecone and Lacebark pines)physical morphology of based on cone, seed and leaf characters. DNA phylogeny has shown that Pinus (Ducampopinus) species are members of Pinus (Strobus), and the subgenus Pinus (Ducampopinus) is no longer used.

Subgenus Ducampopinus was regarded as intermediate between the other two subgenera. In many classifications, it is combined into subgenus Strobus, but it was also included in subgenus Pinus in an early classification by the Californian botanist J G Lemmon in 1888, yet it did not fit entirely well in either so it was treated as a third subgenus in its own right. In general, cone and cone scale and seed morphology and leaf fascicle and sheath morphology were emphasized and this seemed to result in a classification that had subsections of pines that were understandable and usually readily recognized by their general appearance. Pines with one fibrovascular bundle per leaf, i.e. subgenera Strobus and Ducampopinus, were known as haploxylon pines, while pines with two fibrovascular bundles per leaf, i.e. subgenus Pinus, were called diploxylon pines. Diploxylon pines tend to have harder timber and more amounts of resin than the haploxylon pines.

White Pine

White Pine or White Pines may refer to:

Trees

Trees in the pine subgenus Pinus subgenus Strobus

Other coniferous trees called White Pine

Places

United States

White

White is an achromatic color, literally a "color without hue", that is a mixture of the frequencies of all the colors of the visible spectrum. It is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone and other common minerals. In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude.

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, and Romans wore a white toga as a symbol of citizenship. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity; the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It sometimes symbolizes royalty; it was the color of the French kings (black being the color of the queens) and of the monarchist movement after the French Revolution as well as of the movement called the White Russians (not to be confounded with Belarus, literally "White Russia") who fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). Greek and Roman temples were faced with white marble, and beginning in the 18th century, with the advent of neoclassical architecture, white became the most common color of new churches, capitols and other government buildings, especially in the United States of America. It was also widely used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity and strength.

Pinus strobus

Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, white pine, northern white pine, Weymouth pine, and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, and south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and perhaps very rarely in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama, and is planted in areas near its natural range where summer temperatures are fairly moderate.

This tree is known to the Native American Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) as the Tree of Peace. It is known as the Weymouth pine in the United Kingdom, after George Weymouth who brought it to England in 1620.

Distribution

Pinus strobus is found in the nearctic temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome of eastern North America. It prefers well-drained soil and cool, humid climates, but can also grow in boggy areas and rocky highlands. In mixed forests, this dominant tree towers over all others, including the large broadleaf hardwoods. It provides food and shelter for numerous forest birds, such as the red crossbill, and small mammals such as squirrels.

Pine

Pines are conifer trees in the genus Pinus /ˈpiːnuːs/, in the family Pinaceae. They are the only genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The Plant List compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 126 species names of pines as current, together with 35 unresolved species and many more synonyms.

Etymology

The modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’ (source of English pituitary). In the past (pre-19th century) they were often known as fir, from Old Norse fura, by way of Middle English firre. The Old Norse name is still used for pines in some modern north European languages, in Danish fyr, in Norwegian fura/fure/furu, Swedish fura/furu, Dutch vuren, and Föhre in German, but in modern English, fir is now restricted to fir (Abies) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga).

Taxonomy, nomenclature and codification

Pines are gymnosperms. The genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters: