Belfast Botanic Gardens Tree Archive

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This is one of a series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens compiled by the Friends group. The tree tag number relates to the black tree maintenance tags, usually fixed on the tree trunk, 2 to 3m above ground level.
Family: Pinaceae
Pinus peuce Griseb.
Macedonian pine

Black tag 328
54o 34.953N
5o 55.871W

The Macedonian pine is one of the soft pine group. It comes from the SW Balkan mountains and was introduced into cultivation in 1864. The needles are in bunches of 5 and are very thin, but not as drooping as those of the Bhutan pine (Pinus wallichiana) which is also present in Belfast Botanic Gardens. The cones are lax, elongated and each scale has a distinctive knob at the apex. All the scales are incurved (unlike the Weymouth pine where some of the scales curve outwards). The Belfast Botanic Gardens specimen is situated beside the sunken path in the rock garden area.

Pinus peuce in Belfast Botanic Gardens

Pinus peuce bark detail
Pinus peuce, Macedonian pine. Belfast Botanic Gardens Pinus peuce. Bark

Pinus peuce leaf detail

Pinus peuce cones
Pinus peuce. Needles in bunches of five Pinus peuce. Cones

Photos taken in Belfast Botanic Gardens in 2012. Copyright: Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens.

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