Pine nut

Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus). About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of notable value as a human food.

Species and geographic spread

In Asia two species are widely harvested, Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) in northeast Asia (the most important species in international trade), and chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) in the western Himalaya. Four other species, Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica), Siberian dwarf pine (Pinus pumila), Chinese white pine (Pinus armandii) and lacebark pine (Pinus bungeana), are also used to a lesser extent. Afghanistan is an important source of pine nuts.

Pine nuts produced in Europe mostly come from the stone pine (Pinus pinea), which has been cultivated for its nuts for over 5,000 years, and harvested from wild trees for far longer. The Swiss pine (Pinus cembra) is also used to a very small extent.

In North America, the main species are three of the pinyon pines: Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis), single-leaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), and Mexican pinyon (Pinus cembroides). The other eight pinyon species are used to a small extent, as are gray pine (Pinus sabineana), Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) and Parry pinyon (Pinus quadrifolia). "Pinyon" is spelled as piñon in Spanish.

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:

Nut

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