Luchu Pine

Pinus luchuensis Mayr

Pinus luchuensis Mayr, Bot. Centralbl. 18:149, 1894.—Stone, Micronesica 6:66, 1971.

Trees with dark gray slender twigs with persistent woody scales; needles 2 in a fascicle, slender, about 0.9 mm or less thick, 6–16 cm long; cones ovoid, 3–6 cm long and wide (when opened up), scales with umbo sharply distinct, scarcely mucronate; body of seed up to 5 mm, with wing to almost 2 cm.

Native to Ryukyu Islands, naturalized in the Bonins; a single tree planted on Nimitz Hill is probably this species, although it was sterile when collected, leaving some doubt as to its identity. Paul Souder (pers. comm., 26 May 1966) says that this tree at that time was producing small cones. He also informed us that two other trees were growing at Yigo, brought from Chichi Jima, Bonin Islands.

MARIANAS ISLANDS.—Guam: s. 1. Souder 9 (Fo), Nimitz Hill, single planted tree, 170 m, Fosberg 43493 (US, BISH, Fo) (the Souder collection is from same tree as Fosberg one).

Pinus luchuensis, commonly called Luchu pine or Okinawa pine, is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae endemic to, and locally abundant in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. It was once threatened by habitat loss in the wild, where it can be found growing in small stands near windy ocean shores. Having been harvested widely since the Second World War, the remaining stands are no longer commercially viable, except when cultivated for ornamental use.