Pinaceae (pine family) Pinus

Pinus nigra Austrian black pine

Austria, Hungary

The Austrian is a two-needled pine, with stiff, dark, 5-inch needles and 3-inch cones. Some can be seen right of the stairs on the east side of the former ΣAE house at 1047 Campus Drive. Black pine takes its name from the dark-gray bark which distinguishes it from the reddish-barked Scotch pine, that other pine distributed across the whole of Europe (and Siberia). Races of black pine are also found in the Pyrenees, Corsica, Calabria, Slovenia, the Balkans, Turkey, and Cyprus.

If P. nigra is still found on campus, there are no large, straight-trunked forest forms, and they are indistinguishable in the field – except perhaps to an expert – by cone and leaf.

Name derivation: Pinus – Latin for pine; nigra – black (the bark).

About this Entry: The main text of this entry is from the book Trees of Stanford and Environs, by Ronald Bracewell, published 2005. Minor edits Dec 2018 (SP).