The pine family has the scientific name Pinaceae, the same family as pine, yew, cedar, etc. has a very fragrant resin, their average lifespan is very high, about 10-100 years. Consists of many species (200-250 species) distributed in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. But in tropical and subtropical regions, this plant can also be found.
Pine is a woody tree, with broad but sparse foliage, sparse conical leaves and often dark green, fading at the top and growing in clusters at the branches.
The tree has a height of about 30 - 100m, the diameter of the trunk is from 0.6 - 0.8m, with young trees the trunk is often rough, and the old tree's trunk peels off into large patches. Seen from above, the leaves have a very eye-catching triangular cross-section.
This is the most common pine tree in our country in general and Da Lat in particular, appearing a lot in the Lang Biang highland as a large, gray-brown tree with little resin but a very strong smell.
The leaves are needle-shaped, turquoise and often attached with 3 needles on a short stem, each needle is usually about 20-25cm long.
The three-leaf pine tree has a single cone from the base, the female cone usually ripens in about 2-3 years. When ripe, the cones will turn into wood, with a size of 5 - 9cm high, 4-5cm wide, carpels often develop into scales and each scale has 2 seeds, diamond-shaped seeds.
Because the tree has quite little resin, it is often grown for the main purpose of taking wood for household appliances, wood pulp for paper, etc.
The three-leaf pine is a coniferous tree that is widely distributed in countries in Asia such as China, India, and some Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam. The three-leaf pine occurs in our country mainly in the Lang Biang highland with an altitude of 1000-1700m above sea level. However, in the same Di Linh plateau, there is still this type of pine planted at an altitude of less than 1000m above sea level.
Five-leaf pine tree This is also the type of pine that occurs in Vietnam but is not as common as the three-leaf pine. The tree is about 20m tall and the trunk diameter is about 60cm.
When the plant is in the first year, it has a lot of hair, but from the 2nd to 3rd year it is no longer hairy, the sprouts are brown and no resin, the needles grow in clusters of 5 leaves and tend to break. in.
The leaf blade is triangular, the size of the pine cone is quite large from 8-10cm, the fruit contains many seeds with different sizes.
This plant is quite rare in our country, only commonly found in the Hang Kia – Pa Co nature reserve in Mai Chau, Hoa Binh.
They are found in Pa Co and have only been developed in the last few years, with very different characteristics from the three-leaf pine and Da Lat pine, which are commonly known as Chinese pine species.
Da Lat pine tree Pinus dalatensis, also known as the five-leaf pine, is a plant endemic to Vietnam, grown and appearing most often in Da Lat and Lam Dong.
It is a tree with a large trunk, about 30m high, and about 0.6 - 0.8m in diameter.
In young trees, the bark is longitudinally cracked, old trees are peeling off into large patches, short branches grow in clusters on top of branches, each short branch bears 5 needles at the top, with triangular cross-section.
Unisexual cones have the same root, female cones have a cylindrical shape about 5.5 - 10cm long, 2.5 - 4cm in diameter. When ripe, the cones are gray-black, the seeds are ovoid, brown and 0.4-0.5cm in diameter, with 1.5cm-long wings at the top.
Da Lat pine trees are planted into forests mainly to get wood for household items and furniture, not for plastic value like other pine species.
They have different characteristics from the three-leaf or five-leaf pine in Hang Kia - Pa Co, and are rare species on the list of must-conserve in Vietnam.