Kingdom Plantae Class Pinopsida Family Pinaceae Scientific name Pinus fenzeliana | Division Pinophyta Order Pinales Genus Pinus Rank Species | |
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Similar Pinus wangii, Pinus squamata, Pinus amamiana, Pinus jaliscana, Pinus praetermissa | ||
Pinus fenzeliana commonly known as the Hainan white pine or Fenzel's pine, is a tree endemic to the island of Hainan off southern China. This pine reaches heights of 20 m with a trunk 1 m in diameter.
Description
The Pinus fenzeliana leaves are needle-like, in fascicles of five, and 5–13 cm long. The cones are 6–11 cm long, with thick, woody scales; the seeds are large, about 8–15 mm long, with a vestigial 3 mm wing, similar to the related Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii). Hainan White Pine differs from that species in the shorter needles, smaller cones, and in being adapted to a subtropical rainforest habitat.
A pine from the Dabie Shan mountains in Anhui, eastern China, first described as a species Pinus dabeshanensis, is occasionally treated as a variety of this species, but more commonly as a variety of P. armandii, which it more closely resembles.
Reports of Pinus fenzeliana from Vietnam have not been verified; trees in this area have proved to be either Vietnamese White Pine (Pinus dalatensis) or Guangdong White Pine (Pinus wangii), which both differ markedly in cone and seed size and shape, though similar in foliage.