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Scientific name: Pinus cubensis Grisebach 1862
Synonyms: Pinus cubensis subsp. maestraensis (Bisse) Silba, Pinus cubensis var. anomala Rowlee, Pinus maestraensis Bisse, Pinus montezumae var. cubensis Nutt., Pinus occidentalis var. cubensis (Griseb.) Silba, Pinus occidentalis var. maestraensis (Bisse) Silba, Pinus wrightii Engelm.
Common names: Cuban pine, Oriente pine (English), Pino de Mayarí (Spanish)
Tree to 30(-40) m tall, with trunk to 1 m in diameter. Bark grayish brown, thick, with rough, blocky ridges or small plates divided by deep furrows. Crown conical when young, becoming shallowly bowl-shaped and open with age, with slender horizontal branches sparsely clothed with foliage. Twigs reddish brown but whitened by a waxy coating, little roughened with the bases of scale leaves, hairless. Buds 8-15 mm long, not resinous. Needles in bundles of two (or three), each needle (4-)8-15(-17) mm long, stiff and straight, lasting 2-3 years, dark green. Individual needles with numerous visible lines of stomates on both the inner and outer faces, and three to six resin canals touching the two-stranded midvein at the corners and inside both faces. Sheath 6-10 mm long, soon curling back but persisting and falling with the bundle. Pollen cones 15-20 mm long, yellow. Seed cones 4-7 cm long, broadly egg-shaped, with 50-90 seed scales, green before maturity, ripening dark yellowish brown, on slender stalks 1-2 cm long, opening widely to release the seeds and then falling. Seed scales paddle-shaped, the exposed face horizontally diamond-shaped, crossed by a ridge topped by a small diamond-shaped umbo with a short, easily broken prickle. Seed body 5-7 mm long, the firmly attached wing another 12-19 mm longer.
Eastern Cuba, in Guantánamo, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba provinces, all parts of the historic Oriente province. Forming pure, open pine forests in the mountains and formerly down to the coast, especially on the difficult serpentine soils that are so prominent in this part of Cuba; (100-)300-900(-1,200) m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
This species has a relatively limited extent of occurrence and area of occupancy (the latter estimated on a rather wide grid base around each map dot as it is open forest forming over extensive areas) indicating that it might qualify as Near Threatened, but there is no evident decline. The species, being a pioneer in secondary forest, may even be on the increase after disturbance of primary forest. It is therefore listed Least Concern.
Populations are either stable or expanding. This species occurs in foothills and highlands as well as in 'pine barrens' along the coast. Pinus cubensis forms mostly pure but open stands or is invasive in disturbed sites on serpentine or serpentine-derived, often ferruginous soils ("Nipe latosol" or "Nipe clay"), or on alluvial sediment near the coast. In the highlands there is abundant rainfall (1,800 mm or more annually), but a dry winter season is a typical aspect of the tropical to subtropical climate. Phenology: time of pollen dispersal is not recorded.
No specific threats have been identified for this species. Pinus cubensis is the only pine occurring in the eastern part of Cuba; no pines occur naturally in Cuba between eastern Cuba and Pinar del Río in the extreme west of the island, and as such this pine is of importance economically as a timber source to this part of Cuba. It is also used in re-vegetation programmes. This species is not known to be in cultivation
This species is known from several protected areas. It is also a pioneer species in secondary vegetation.
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