Pine dwarf siberian seeds

Siberian dwarf pine or dwarf Siberian pine or dwarf stone pine, Japanese stone pine, or creeping pine / Pinus pumila

A small creeping woody plant with widely spread branches, a species of the genus Pine (Pinus) of the Pine family (Pinaceae).

It forms crowns of various types - bowl-shaped, creeping above the ground or tree-like. Tree-like crowns are found in elfin in valleys sheltered from the wind, where trees reach 4-5 m (occasionally 7 m) in height with a trunk thickness of 15-18 cm at the root neck. In adults (100 or more years old) plants creeping along the ground, the trunks reach 20-25 cm and a length of 10-12 m. thickets are called creeping forests, slate cedar forests and creeping cedar forests.

The bark of the branches is almost smooth, gray, slightly scaly on the stems, dark brown with gray spots. In creeping forms, the branches are pressed to the ground, their ends are raised up by 30-50 cm. Young shoots are green at first, densely pubescent with red hairs, later light brown. The needles are trihedral, bluish-green, from 4 to 8 cm in length, collected in bunches of 5.

Cones ripen in the second year after "flowering". Cones are small, from 4 to 7 cm long, about 3 cm wide, ovate or elongated, fall closed with seeds.

Nuts are small, 5-9 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, dark brown, oval-irregular in shape, with a thin woody skin. The share of the kernel accounts for 43%, the share of the shell - 57% of the total mass of the nut. The average weight of 1000 seeds is 98 g, 1 kg contains up to 24 thousand seeds.

Seed production begins at the age of 20-30 and lasts up to 200 years or more. Harvest years - every 2-4 years. In abundant harvests, up to 2 centners of nuts knocked out from cones are harvested from 1 ha.

The root system of Siberian dwarf pine initially has a tap root and lateral branches, then the tap root dies off, and lateral superficial roots develop. When the roots are immersed in the growing moss layer or in sandy-stony soil sediments, as well as when the permafrost horizon rises, adventitious roots are formed to replace the buried and dead roots. Branches pressed to the ground are capable of rooting. The formation of adventitious roots and the rooting of branches ensure the vitality of the plant.

The wood is resinous, dense, heavy, durable, with curly and eccentric annual layers, it is difficult to prick. Thickets of Siberian dwarf pine, as a rule, are richly populated with birds and small animals. In addition, elfin thickets are a constant and invariably rich food base for the brown bear.

Cedar elfin is a valuable economic plant. Peeled kernels of dwarf nuts contain up to 59%, and nuts with shells - up to 26% of high-grade oil, which is not inferior in quality to oils from Siberian and Korean cedar nuts. as well as Provence and almond oil. Nut kernels are rich in starch, protein, sugar. The cake remaining after extraction from the peeled kernels of nuts is used for the preparation of halva, fillings for sweets, flour, cookies and other products. Nuts are eaten fresh and fried (“hot”), the local population prepares “nut milk” from them.

Elfin wood is used for small crafts. Stems, branches and roots are suitable as pitch for distillation of turpentine and pitch.