Pinus wallichiana is native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mountains, temperate rainforests at elevations of 1600-3300 meters above sea level. It is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 5 to 7.
Pinus wallichiana also called as blue pine, Himalayan pine, Himalayan white pine and Bhutan pine (not to be confused with the recently described Bhutan white pine, Pinus bhutanica, a closely related species), is a species of the genus Pinus. This species was described by Albert Bruce Jackson in 1938.
IDENTIFY PINUS WALLICHIANA - HIMALAYAN WHITE PINE PLANTS
Pinus wallichiana is native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mountains, temperate rainforests at elevations of 1600-3300 meters above sea level. It is hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 5 to 7.
Himalayan White Pine is a coniferous evergreen softwood tree which reaching up to 70 m tall with to 1 m in diameter or more trunk that has dark gray-brown, minutely scaly and flaking bark and broadly pyramidal crown; 1st-year branchlets green (drying red-brown), shiny, faintly whitish bloomed, glabrous; winter buds red-brown, cylindric-obovoid or cylindric-conical, slightly resinous.
Their needles are 5 per bundle, pendulous, slender, triangular in cross section, 11-18 cm x 1 mm, soft, adaxial surface dark green, vascular bundle 1, resin canals 3, adaxial 2 marginal, abaxial 1 always median. Seed cones pendulous, pedunculate (peduncle 2.5-4 cm), cylindric, straight or curved, 10-30 × 3-4 cm (5-9 cm wide when open), resinous. Seed scales cuneate-obovate, 3-5 × 2-3 cm at middle of cone; apophyses shiny, often glaucous, rhombic, slightly thickened; umbo dark brown, slightly projecting, apex obtuse, obviously incurved. Seeds brown or black-brown, ellipsoid-obovoid, 3-9 × 4-5 mm; wing 1-3 cm × 8-9 mm.
The timber of Himalayan pine is a well-known and extensively used for construction, in joinery, house fitments, light furniture, packing cases, lamin-boards, flush doors, plane tables and railway sleepers after treatment. The wood is rich in resin and can be splintered and used as a torch. It is also a popular tree for planting in parks and large gardens, grown for its attractive foliage and large, decorative cones. It is also valued for its relatively high resistance to air pollution, tolerating this better than some other conifers.
PINUS WALLICHIANA - HIMALAYAN WHITE PINE PLANTS CARE AND CULTIVATION
The cultivation of these plants presents no special difficulties, if proper soil and exposure are available. The question of hardiness is, of course, all-important. It is not only the problem of temperature the given tree will stand, but also the exposure to winds, and, to a considerable extent, the source from which the tree is derived. If the plants are raised from seeds matured in similar or even more rigorous climates, they are usually more hardy.
Soils:
Pinus wallichiana prefer a well-drained porous gravelly subsoil, overlaid with a light sandy loam. They seem to be particularly happy in a soil underlaid with a porous glacial drift. In cultivation, however, they succeed very well in ordinary well-drained soil. When the plants are set in clay soil, which is often done, the soil should be thoroughly loosened by trenching or subsoil plowing, and well underdrained. Any available humus, woodashes, and well-rotted manure incorporated in the soil greatly aid in rendering it friable and porous for the roots.
Manures and mulches:
Mulching with ordinary well-rotted barnyard manure in late autumn affords much stimulus to growth. By the following spring the manure will be in a desiccated condition and can be incorporated with the soil. A heavy mulch of old straw, rotten hay, or any similar material over the roots, and this was maintained throughout the entire growing season is benefit to the plants in a more or less juvenile condition.
In many cases manure is not obtainable. In such event, newly moved plants should be heavily mulched with rotten straw, rotten hay, or any similar rubbish for a few years until they become established. The frequent stirring of the ground over the roots subsequently will conserve sufficient moisture.
An area extending from the stem to one to two feet beyond the branches, stirred up with hoe and rake perhaps five or six times throughout the growing season, is very beneficial in conserving the moisture around the roots.
Pruning:
Removal of the lower branches of Himalayan White Pine is a serious mistake, and, if healthy, they should be retained to the base. Pruning or disbudding can be intelligently performed to add much to the natural symmetry. The extraction or removal, early in spring, of the central or terminal bud, will tend to compel the branches which start from the side buds to spread apart and form a much denser growth. Cutting back the previous year's terminal growth to a strong bud or branchlet on the main limbs over the tree, if the plant is inclined to be thin in its branching, always produces a much denser lateral growth.
Transplanting:
Transplanting can be done at all times of the year, excepting midsummer when they are in full growth. The best success is secured in spring when the buds begin to swell. From the end of August to the middle of September, if there have been abundant rains and the ground has been well soaked, is a very good time to move the plants. They may be planted late in autumn when circumstances compel it, but there is likely to be a considerable percentage of loss. Their roots are very susceptible to injury from exposure to the air, and the utmost vigilance should be exercised to keep them covered and moist.
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