Stone pine

The leaf

Needles in pairs, 10 to 20 cm long, stiff and a slightly greyish green. Young trees also have short, single, bluish needles, quite unlike those of the adult.

The bark

Thick and reddish brown, broken into large, long plates separated by deep, darker fissures. When the plates fall they leave orange patches.

The fruit

Large, heavy, almost spherical cones, 8 to 15 cm, glossy chestnut brown. They take three years to ripen and hold the pine nuts: a hard shell around an edible seed.

The flower

The male cones are yellowish and grouped at the base of the year's shoots; the small, greenish female ones grow at the tips. It flowers in spring, a little later than the Aleppo pine.

1. Jan
2. Feb
3. Mar
4. Apr
5. May
6. Jun
7. Jul
8. Aug
9. Sep
10. Oct
11. Nov
12. Dec

Habit

A mature tree has a straight trunk that splits higher up into several thick limbs, topped by a broad, flat, dense crown like an umbrella. It is usually 12 to 25 m tall.

Where it grows

In Catalonia it belongs to loose, sandy soils near the coast and to the milder inland plains, such as the Maresme, the Vallès or the Empordà. It is often planted beside farmhouses and in parks and promenades for its shade.