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pine, common name for members of the Pinaceae, a family of resinous woody trees with needlelike, usually evergreen leaves. The Pinaceae reproduce by means of cones (see cone) rather than flowers and many have winged seeds, suitable for wind distribution. They are found chiefly in north temperate regions, where they form vast forests. The family was apparently more abundant in the mid-Cenozoic era, but it has maintained its population better than other gymnosperms because the trees are more adaptable to cold, dry climates; the reduced leaf surface and deep-set stomata minimize loss of water by transpiration. The family is the largest and most important of the conifers, providing naval stores, paper pulp, and more lumber by far than any other family. In some localities almost pure stands occur, permitting economical lumbering of large numbers of a given type of tree. Of the family's nine genera four are widely dispersed throughout North America and the Old World. Members of all nine genera are represented in horticulture as introduced timber trees or ornamentals. The so-called kauri pine, although pinelike in appearance, belongs to another family (see monkey-puzzle tree).

The True Pines

Pinus (the true pines) is the largest and most widespread genus, characteristic of many north temperate regions (except the plains), especially at lower altitudes, and in a few tropical regions, notably on mountain slopes. Species of Pinus can often be identified by the leaf arrangement, one needle or clusters of from two to five (in all cases enclosed in a sheath at the base) being consistently produced by each type. Many of the pines are economically valuable; from them come the naval stores: pitch (see tar and pitch), turpentine, and rosin. Drying and nondrying oils are also made from the seeds of some pines. Several Mediterranean and American species yield edible seeds (see pine nut).

The

ponderosa pine or

western yellow pine (P. ponderosa), is a hard pine second only to the Douglas fir as a commercial timber tree in North America. The

white pine (P. strobus) has straight-grained soft wood with little resin, used especially for interior trim and cabinetwork. It once grew densely from Newfoundland to Manitoba and over much of the E United States westward to Minnesota, but constant felling and attacks of white-pine blister rust have greatly depleted the stands, especially in the NE United States. The

Norway pine, or

red pine, (P. resinosa) has a similar range and has also suffered from overcutting. Its wood is somewhat heavier and is suitable for general construction. The Norway pine is frequently used in reforestation programs. The

jack pine (P. banksiana), the most northern of the American species, thrives on poor and sandy soils and is much used to colonize areas where more valuable species may later be introduced. Although the trunk is often gnarled, making it unsuitable for good lumber, it supplies much pulpwood and is used locally for rough lumber, fuel, and crating. The

Virginia pine (P. virginiana) of the Appalachians and the Piedmont is popular regionally as a Christmas tree. The

longleaf pine, or

Southern yellow pine (P. palustris) has highly resinous wood used for heavy construction and as a major source of naval stores and pulpwood. It and the faster growing

slash pine (P. caribaea) of the same region have gained importance as northern pine stands have been depleted. The latter is widely cultivated in tropical areas with sandy soils. The

Scotch pine (P. sylvestris), ranging from Scotland to Siberia and popular as a Christmas tree in the United States, is one of the most valuable timber trees of Europe. The

cluster pine (P. pinaster), widespread in S France and in Spain, is the chief European source of turpentine. The

Monterey pine (P. radiata) of California has been widely planted in New Zealand and Chile for reforestation.

Other Species in the Pine Family

Abies (fir) species are usually of more northern distribution and found at higher altitudes. Sap-filled "blisters" on the trunks of some species provide balsam. Larix (larch) and Pseudolarix (golden larch, of China) are the only two deciduous genera. Picea (spruce) is the world's most important source of paper. Cedrus (cedar) ranges from the Mediterranean area to the Himalayas; Keteleeria is restricted to E and SE Asia.

Tsuga (hemlock) and Pseudotsuga are native only to North America and E Asia. Pseudotsuga menziesii (the Douglas fir) of W North America, one of the tallest trees known (up to 385 ft/117 m) and the leading timber-producing tree of the continent, is carefully controlled by forestry measures. Its wood, usually hard and strong, is of great commercial importance for construction; it is also commonly used as a Christmas tree in the United States. Named for David Douglas, the tree has many local names, e.g., Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, red fir, and yellow fir.

Classification

Pines are classified in the division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, order Coniferales.

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pine

Cluster of pollen-bearing male cones of Austrian (black) pine (Pinus nigra).

(credit: Grant Heilman--EB Inc.)

Any of 10 genera of coniferous trees (rarely shrubs) of the family Pinaceae (see conifer), native to northern temperate regions, especially about 90 species of ornamental and timber evergreen conifers of the genus Pinus. Needlelike leaves and cones are solitary or in bunches. Shallow root systems make pines susceptible to wind and surface disturbance. The family includes fir, Douglas fir, hemlock, spruce, larch, and cedar. Many species are sources of softwood timber, paper pulp, oils, and resins. Some are cultivated as ornamentals.

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pine

the wood of any of these trees

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pine

1. any evergreen resinous coniferous tree of the genus Pinus, of the N hemisphere, with long needle-shaped leaves and brown cones: family Pinaceae

2. any other tree or shrub of the family Pinaceae

3. any of various similar but unrelated plants, such as ground pine and screw pine

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Pine

Courtney. born 1964, British jazz saxophonist

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pine [′pīn]

(botany)

Any of the cone-bearing trees composing the genusPinus;characterized by evergreen leaves (needles), usually in tight clusters of two to five.

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Pine - Program for Internet News & Email. A tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages. It was designed specifically with novice computer users in mind, but can be tailored to accommodate the needs of "power users" as well. Pine uses Internet message protocols (e.g. RFC 822, SMTP, MIME, IMAP, NNTP) and runs under Unix and MS-DOS. The guiding principles for Pine's user-interface were: careful limitation of features, one-character mnemonic commands, always-present command menus, immediate user feedback, and high tolerance for user mistakes. It is intended that Pine can be learned by exploration rather than reading manuals. Feedback from the University of Washington community and a growing number of Internet sites has been encouraging. Pine's message composition editor, Pico, is also available as a separate stand-alone program. Pico is a very simple and easy-to-use text editor offering paragraph justification, cut/paste, and a spelling checker. Pine features on-line help; a message index showing a message summary which includes the status, sender, size, date and subject of messages; commands to view and process messages; a message composer with easy-to-use editor and spelling checker; an address book for saving long complex addresses and personal distribution lists under a nickname; message attachments via Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions; folder management commands for creating, deleting, listing, or renaming message folders; access to remote message folders and archives via the Interactive Mail Access Protocol as defined in RFC 1176; access to Usenet news via NNTP or IMAP. Pine, Pico and UW's IMAP server are copyrighted but freely available. Unix Pine runs on Ultrix, AIX, SunOS, SVR4 and PTX. PC-Pine is available for Packet Driver, Novell LWP, FTP PC/TCP and Sun PC/NFS. A Microsoft Windows/WinSock version is planned, as are extensions for off-line use. Pine was originally based on Elm but has evolved much since ("Pine Is No-longer Elm"). Pine is the work of Mike Seibel, Mark Crispin, Steve Hubert, Sheryl Erez, David Miller and Laurence Lundblade (now at Virginia Tech) at the University of Washington Office of Computing and Communications. ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/pine.tar.Z. telnet://demo.cac.washington.edu/ (login as "pinedemo"). E-mail: <pine@cac.washington.edu>, <pine-info-request@cac.washington.edu>, <pine-announce-request@cac.washington.edu>.