Pinus halepensis Mill.
Eng.: Mediterranean pine, Aleppo pine. Spa.: Pino carrasco. Fre.: Pin blanc, pin d’Alep. Ara.: Senuber, snuber, snuber halab, raurai. Tam.: Taïda, taiia, azumbei (Kabyle), azenbi, azuber, igengen.
Evergreen tree, monoecious, medium size up to 20 m in height on very favourable terrain. In mature specimens the shape is very irregular, but usually with rounded appearance. Young trees have a conical shape. Depending on the habitat, the trunk is tortuous or stylised, and can reach up to 1.5 m in diameter. Frequent pine in the Mediterranean coast. In areas most affected by storms and with rocky soils it often takes a stockier, bushy form, with older specimens reaching up to 10 m in diameter and only 2 m high. Bark ashy, white or silvery, characteristically smooth at first, turning from brown to red-brown and fissured with age. Branches and branchlets thinner than in other pines. Leaves born in pairs at the end of the branchlets, on a sort of pedicel that surrounds the base. Leaves light green, flexible and very thin (6-15 × 0.05-0.1 cm). Male cones oblong (5-8 × 3-4 mm) yellowish, grouped in large numbers in cylindrical spikes, 5-8 cm near the apex of the branchlets. Female cones ovoid (5-12 mm), first green-pink, then purple, longly pedunculate. Strobili characterised by a thick woody peduncle 1-2 cm, ovoid-conical (6-12 × 3.5-4.5 cm), elongated, with a rhomboid almost flat apophysis and a small blunt central appendage. Seeds small (5-7 mm) with wings 3-5 times higher.
Flowering:
March to May.
Fruiting:
August to October of the second year, with the cones opening for seed dispersal in the spring of the third year.
Habitat:
Dry and sunny terrain from sea level to 2,200 m. On very diverse substrates, in semiarid to subhumid ombrotypes. This is the North African pine that best withstands drought and high temperatures, and therefore it is the most abundant and most widely distributed, found from the Mediterranean to the Saharan Atlas.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa, it appears here and there throughout the entire north of the Sahara, that is, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya (Cyrenaica). In the past, it must have been very common in the vast steppes between the Tellian Atlas and the Saharan Atlas; however, it has almost disappeared in that area.
Observations:
These pines have two characteristics that put them in an advantageous position when competing with almost any other tree species in regions such as the Mediterranean, when it comes to recolonising newly deforested land. First, they are sun-loving species that thrive in bare soil with no overshadowing from vegetation. Secondly, their growth is the fastest among Mediterranean forest species. The destruction of native forests by plowing, fires and grazing has been a constant in the natural history of North Africa, which undoubtedly has favoured the expansion of pine forests. This explains, for example, that they currently constitute the largest forest area of the region, covering nearly a million and half hectares.
In the Mediterranean region, pines are opportunistic, colonisers of degraded ecosystems, but we should not forget they are indigenous, though currently it would be rare that they occur naturally. This is proven by the presence of fossil pollen of Pinus pinaster in Kabylia from 10,000 years ago, or in the Rif from 7,000 years ago. There have always been pines in the region. In fact, the presence of endemic subspecies and varieties of Pinus nigra and Pinus pinaster in North Africa can only be the result of an ancient presence of pines in the area.One of the best places to observe the advance of desertification is in the base on the southern slopes of the Tellian Atlas. Formerly the area was covered in dense oak forests, but these have been gradually disappearing through logging (which destroyed them) and agriculture, grazing and increased desertification (which prevented their regeneration). In some places, dead oak forests are still standing, forming skeletal forests on a steppe of esparto and rosemary, with no probability of natural regeneration of oak trees. However, in this area there are small forests of Pinus halepensis in perfect condition. An adequate large scale reforestation with this pine and the elimination of grazing would protect the soil from sunstroke and erosion, probably creating better conditions for subsequent repopulation of oak forests and consequent stop and reversal of desertification. Some plantations made with this pine half a century ago in North Africa are now leading to spontaneous regeneration of the original Mediterranean hardwood forest, with trees or shrubs that, in the less dry places, are as tall or even higher than the pines.In Algeria, an ambitious program was launched in 1974 to curb the desert. The government proposed planting a forest strip of 3,000,000 hectares along the northern edge of the Sahara. Planting began with great enthusiasm to form what was called the “Green Barrier”. Tunisia and Libya joined the project to continue with it along their respective territories. The most widely used species was Pinus halepensis (more than 85% of all trees planted). However, not the most appropriate techniques were used and the project does not seem to evolve as expected.
Conservation status:
Common species. In IUCN Red List of Threatened Species it is listed at a global level as Least Concern (LC) (Farjon 2013).