Pinus pumila, commonly known as the Siberian dwarf pine, dwarf Siberian pine,[1][3]dwarf stone pine,[1]Japanese stone pine,[3] or creeping pine,[4] is a tree in the family Pinaceaenative to northeastern Asia and the Japanese isles. It shares the common name creeping pine with several other plants.
The Siberian dwarf pine is a coniferousevergreen shrub ranging from 1–3 metres (3–10 feet) in height, exceptionally up to 5 m (16 ft), but may have individual branches that extend farther along the ground in length. In the mountains of northern Japan, it sometimes hybridizes with the related Japanese white pine (Pinus parviflora); these hybrids (Pinus × hakkodensis) are larger than P. pumila, reaching 8–10 m (26–33 ft) tall on occasion.
Pinus pumila in natural habitat, eastern Siberia
The leaves are needle-like, formed in bundles of five and are 4–6 centimeters long. The cones are 2.5–4.5cm long, with large nut-like seeds (pine nuts).[5]
Distribution
The range covers the Far East, Eastern Siberia, north-east of Mongolia, north-east of China, northern Japan and Korea.[3] Siberian dwarf pine can be found along mountain chains, above the tree line, where it forms dense, uninterrupted thickets; it also grows on the headlands above the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, Tatarsk and Pacific coast (the Kurils).
P. pumila grows very slowly. It can live up to 300 and, in some instances, 1,000 years.[6][full citation needed] In the colder conditions of Siberia, there are specimens which are 250 years old and older.
Ecology
The seeds are harvested and dispersed by the spotted nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes).
^Fukui, K.; Sone, T.; Yamagata, K.; Otsuki, Y.; Sawada, Y.; Vetrova, V.; Vyatkina, M. (2008). "Relationships between permafrost distribution and surface organic layers near Esso, central Kamchatka, Russian Far East". Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. 19 (1): 85–92. doi:10.1002/ppp.606. S2CID130100766.
