Mountain pine (lat. Pinus mugo) is a coniferous species of pine, and in our region it is better known as juniper or curved pine. It is a bushy and irregular type of pine that often grows on mountain tops.
As for its appearance, it is most often a low and prostrate bush with a short trunk, and very rarely an upright tree that can reach a height of up to 12 meters. It is specific in that it does not have one main root or heart vein, but has numerous side roots that are very branched and can spread even in a radius of 10 meters.
Mountain pine develops deep roots unless planted on shallow and weak, drained soil. It grows from half a meter to 2 meters wide, with a spreading crown, and the trunk reaches a diameter of up to 120 cm. The trunk has gray-brown to reddish-brown bark that later becomes dark, fissured and thin with irregular scales. The shoots are annual and their color changes from light green to brown and reddish brown.
The buds are egg-shaped and oblong, 6 mm long, and are full of resin, and considering that it is a two-needle pine, the needles are gathered by two in a tuft. They are very hard and have a dark green color, their length is from 2 to 8 cm, and their width is about 2 mm, and they can remain on the branches for many years. On a short stem, cones are held, which grow singly or up to four in a spine. They are ovoid-conical or ovoid in shape.
They are 2 to 7 cm long and 1.5 to 4 cm wide. They ripen after 2 years. Yellow-brown or dark brown color is the shield of the fertile shell, which is flat or pyramidal. The hump is lighter and the ring-shaped edge is darker. On the hump it is possible to see a more pronounced or stunted spike, while the seed is also egg-shaped, about 5 mm long, light gray-brown in color, and has wings about 10 to 15 mm long. Flowering time is in May and June, female flowers are purple, and male flowers are red-yellow.
Pine name: Mountain pine, English. Mountain pine, juniper or pine curve
Type of pine: coniferous
Tree height: 10 to 20 meters
Planting time: April and May
Flowering time: May and June
Planting conditions: an open and sunny place is ideal, but it is also possible in partial shade
Ways of reproduction: vegetatively by cuttings, and in nature by seeds
Method of use: for culinary purposes, health and as an ornamental plant in parks and gardens
Types of mountain pine
There are two main types of mountain pine, and they differ according to their cones and growth, and they are:
1. Pinus montana var. Pumilio – it is characteristic that the branches are lying down, wide and densely grown together, and the length of the needles is from 2 to 5 cm.
2. Pinus montana var. mughus – it is characteristic that the branches are partly lying down and rising, the length of the needles is from 2 to 8 cm, the buds are very resinous and brown.
The natural habitat of the mountain pine is places at a higher altitude, the mountainous regions of southern and central Europe, in the Pyrenees, the Eastern Alps, the Apennine and Dinaric mountains, the Carpathians, the German highlands, the Sudetenland and the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula.
It is possible to find it in unfavorable, extreme and scarce habitats. It can grow on dry and wet, basic and poor soils. Its growth is possible in sunny and shady, karst and rocky areas.
It usually grows at altitudes that are above 1400 m, although it can appear somewhere up to 1000 m above sea level on northern and steep exposures. It forms the upper limit of forest vegetation from 2,000 to 2,200 m. In Croatia, it grows in the coastal area in Primorje, and is considered an autochthonous species, like black, white or forest pine. It is also protected by law.
Mountain pine planting and propagation
The best time for planting mountain pine is spring, that is, in April and May. However, planting is also possible at the beginning of autumn, in September, although then there is not enough time to get stronger before the coming frosts. An open and sunny place is ideal for planting mountain pine, but it is also possible to plant it in partial partial shade.
The soil in which the mountain pine is planted must be evenly moist until the plants take root and form. The flowering of the mountain pine takes place in May and June, and the seed ripens in October and its germination is from 75 to 85 percent.
Mountain pine is propagated vegetatively by cuttings, while in nature it is propagated by seeds.
When planting mountain pine with the help of cuttings, it is necessary to make high-quality fertilizer, for example ground humus, and it is necessary to add it for the first two years to young plants.
In order to achieve a more compact appearance of the mountain pine, it is inevitable that the pine is pinched in late spring. This encourages the growth of side shoots, and the pine takes on a more beautiful appearance.
Mountain pine cultivation and maintenance
Growing mountain pine from seed is not complicated, but proper and high-quality preparation is necessary. The seeds must be soaked in water for 24 hours and then the water must be drained completely.
The seeds are placed in a freezer bag that has a zipper and placed in the refrigerator. In this pre-treatment, it is important to make sure that the seeds do not dry out or soak too much water, otherwise this pre-treatment will be ineffective.
The emphasis is on checking the seeds every week to make sure they are not drying out.
After about four weeks, the seeds are ready for sowing. The seeds should be sown in pots filled with good quality general compost. Suitable containers for planting can be plant pots, seed pots, insert trays or even makeshift containers with drainage holes. Gently compact the compost and sow the seeds on the surface. If sowing in trays, sow 1 or 2 seeds per cell.
The seeds should be covered with a few millimeters of vermiculite or a fine layer of sieved compost. This is followed by light watering and storage at room temperature. Germination will begin within 10-14 days of sowing. Seedlings are quite robust and can easily grow to a height of usually between 3 and 10 cm in the first growing season, depending on sowing date and cultural techniques.
The development of seedlings should be good with enough light, it is important to water them and free them from competing weeds. Growth will accelerate in the second and subsequent years, and developing young trees should be replanted as needed during the dormant season. After 2 or 3 years they are ready to be planted in their permanent place
The use of mountain pine
Thanks to its beautiful, dense and bushy appearance, the cultivation of mountain pine is common in parks, and it is often used for greening sloping terrain, especially alpine trees. It can also be planted in larger pots and nurseries.
In the Japanese landscape, it is used for larger bonsai specimens, and in Kosovo, the trunk of the mountain pine is used as a building material.
Recently, the trend of using mountain pine in cooking, i.e. collecting buds and young cones from nature in spring, and drying them in the sun during summer and autumn, has been started. This is how the syrup drips from the buds, from which a concentrate is created, and later it is mixed with sugar to obtain pine syrup, better known as pine cone syrup.
The young needles of this pine can be used to prepare tea or cough syrup because they are very rich in vitamin C. Boiled young male cones are edible and can be used in cooking, and the cambium, i.e. the inner bark of the tree, can be dried and ground into flour. The seeds of this pine are also edible, although they are very small.
It is also possible to make essential oil from fresh needles and top twigs, and it refreshes and purifies the respiratory tract. Mountain pine oil is particularly effective as an inhalation agent for all types of inflammatory conditions of the respiratory tract as well as for lung diseases.
For example, if a small child suffers from rickets and has difficulty walking, baths made of pine needles are prepared daily for two to three months, in which the child is bathed for approximately 15 minutes. The bath is prepared by placing 4 to 5 handfuls of cut, dried needles in 5 liters of hot, but not boiling, water and leaving the needle broth on a hot stove for about half an hour.
The broth must remain as warm as possible, but it must not be boiled. After that, it is filtered and poured into the bath. This bath is also effective and useful for adults who have weakened after long illnesses. A mountain pine bath especially helps with gout and rheumatism. The only difference is that when preparing a bath for adults, twice the amount of needles is taken because much more water is needed for bathing.
Photo: MrGajowy3/Pixabay