Species: Pinus mugo Turra

(Pinus mugo Turra)
-> Genus: Pinus -> Family: Pinaceae -> Group: Gymnosperms

Habitus

  • 3 – 5 m high, prostrate shrub, often creeping trunks with protruding branches
  • bark is brown-grey, gradually turning into dark gray to black irregularly cracked bark
  • the root system is flat, spreading

Buds

  • The buds are oblong-ovoid, short-pointed, brown to reddish, strongly resinous

Shoots

  • initially greenish, later brown to dark gray (relatively thick), glabrous
  • Twigs and branches are flexible  - adaptation to snow pressure

Leaves (assimilation organs)

  • needles are 20 - 80 x 1.5 - 2 mm large, dark green, shiny, bluntly pointed
  • grow two at a time on brachyblasts
  • are semicircular in cross-section, slightly sickle-shaped bent
  • they are densely grouped on the branches
  • last 6 - 9 years

Flowers

  • monoecious wood, flowers of different sexes (dioecious often occurs)
  • blooms VI – VII
  • male (♂) cones are up to 1.5 cm long, oblong ovoid, pedunculated, golden yellow, they grow in large numbers at the base of the shoot
  • female (♀) cones are spherical to broadly ovoid, up to 5 mm in size, dark red to purple, short pedunculated
  • they grow two or more at the top of this year's shoot

Fruits – seeds

  • the fruit is a cone 2 - 6 x 1.5 - 2 cm large, green before ripening, dark brown after ripening, shiny, very variable in shape
  • the lower part of the label is dented and the navel pushed in
  • ripens in the autumn of the second year and in the third year falls
  • the seed is up to 5 mm long, ovoid, variously colored – mostly black, but also brown, light, spotted
  • the membranous wing is yellow-brown, two to three times longer than the seed
  • germination is around 80%
  • the seedling is similar to a forest pine seedling (however, it has a green stem).

Extension

  • in the high mountains of Europe above the upper forest line, where it forms a wide belt of dense impassable stands
  • in Slovakia – Western Beskydy, Malá and Veľká Fatra, Spišská Magura
  • the center of distribution is in the Low and the High Tatras
  • grows from 1,550 m a.s.l. m. (upper limit of the forest) - up to 2,050 m above sea level. m. The lowest natural occurrence in Slovakia is recorded on the Muránská plain in Hrdzava dolina (approx. 600 m above sea level).  

Ecology

  • It is one of Slovak humblest trees
  • It is not demanding on nutrients, resistant to extreme temperatures
  • It is demanding on precipitation and especially on light
  • It grows ± on all substrates

Significance

  • protected wood - less threatened species (LR)
  • soil protection, water management, anti-avalanche (prevents the formation of avalanches and soil erosion)
  • is of great importance in ornamental horticulture and the creation of greenery in cities in ornamental horticulture, hl. its shape (height) forms - the so-called "witches"
  • were removed from many places of their natural occurrence in the past by burning and felling in order to obtain pastures (this happened in all higher mountains of Slovakia Western Tatras, Belianske Tatras, Low Tatras, Little and Great Fatra, ...)

From history