Pinus bungeanaUSDA H5-hardy this is grafted for speed of growth.Seed grown items of the specie grow at @1" pa This graft(on a rootstock more suitable for UK climate)will yield 4-6"pa
Synonyms:
Pinus excorticata Lindl. & Gordon
Common names:
Lacebark pine, Bai pi song (Chinese)
Description
Tree to 20(-30) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-3) m in diameter, often dividing near the base. Bark dark and flaking in multicolored, irregular patches when young (hence the common name), becoming progressively whiter with age until the predominant impression on large, old trees may be of a smooth, bone white trunk (the Chinese name is “white bark pine”). Crown dense, conical when young, becoming broad, flat-topped, and irregular with age, with numerous long, slender, upwardly angled, sinuous branches moderately clothed with foliage near the tips. Twigs grayish green, hairless and shiny. Buds about 6-10 mm long, slightly resinous or not. Needles in bundles of three, each needle 5-10 cm long, stiff and straight, lasting 4-5 years, bright dark green to yellowish green. Individual needles with stomates on all three faces, an undivided midvein, and three to seven large resin canals underneath all faces next to the epidermis or occasionally one or two of them away from it. Sheath 1-2 cm long, soon shed. Pollen cones 6-15 mm long, yellowish brown. Seed cones (3-)4.5-6(-8) cm long, egg-shaped with a flat base, with 30-50 seed scales, light green before maturity, ripening yellowish brown, opening widely to release the seeds, remaining attached for a year or two before falling, almost stalkless or with a short, slender to stout stalk up to about 1 cm long. Seed scales angularly egg-shaped, thin but woody and inflexible, the exposed portion thicker, with a ridge across the face separating it into a flat, crescent-shaped rim and a trapezoidal lower portion, the diamond-shaped umbo at the center if the ridge and sticking straight out in a flattened, stout prickle. Seed body 7-12 mm long, egg-shaped, the readily detached wing 2-5 mm long.
Scattered in mountains of central China, mostly around the basin of the Huang He (Yellow River), from central Shanxi west to southern Gansu south to northern Sichuan and western Hubei. Mixed with other conifers and hardwoods in open woodlands on moist, well-drained, rocky soils; (500-)1,000-1,800(-2,200) m.
