Pine

Pine
Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora), North Korea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Pinus L.

Pines are a large and important genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The Plant List of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden lists 126 species of pines,^[1] plus a lot of synonyms.^[2]

Pines live in almost the entire Northern Hemisphere. In North America, they live in the southern part of Arctic to Nicaragua and Hispaniola. In Europe, they live in areas from Portugal and Scotland to Russia. In Asia, they live in areas from Russia to Japan and the Philippines. They also live in the Himalayas, some northern parts of Africa, and north of Majorca (Mallorca) on the rugged mountains.

Pines are long-lived trees (rarely large shrubs), typically reaching heights of 5–70 metres tall and ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva. One individual of this species, named "Methuselah", is the world's oldest living tree at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California.^[3]

1. ↑ "The Plant List Version 1.1". Archived from the original on 2019-06-01. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
2. ↑ A synonym in taxonomy is a scientific name of a taxon that (now) has a different scientific name
3. ↑ Ryan M. & Richardson J.M. (1999). "The complete pine". BioScience. 49 (12): 1023–1024. doi:10.2307/1313736. JSTOR 1313736.