Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Pinus patula
Common name
Patula Pine, Mexican Weeping Pine
Family
Pinaceae
Where found
Naturalised near and amongst cultivated trees of Pinus patula. Coast and ranges north of Wollongong.
Notes
Introduced tree to 10 m tall. Mature female cones with a tiny prickle at the tips of each scale which falls early. Bark on young trees thin, scaly, red-brown, with age becoming thick, dark grey-brown, rough and scaly with large elongated plates and deep longitudinal fissures. Shoots rough and scaly. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, 11–30 cm long, to 1 mm wide, bright green. Leaves in bundles of 3–5 and enclosed within a sheath at the base, becoming droopy. Male and female cones on the same plant. Male cones 15-20 mm long, pink-yellow, turning yellow-brown, in clusters. Female cones purple, turning brown to grey when mature, 50–120 mm long, in clusters of 2–5, lopsided, almost stalkless, pointing down. Mature female cones made up of many woody scales, each thickened at the top. Seeds dark grey, obliquely oval, with a single wing 12-18 mm long.
VICFLORA description: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/f34dd4eb-45ed-44b7-b3da-22a7ed10d4e3 (accessed 11 March 2021)
Wikipedia description: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_patula (accessed 11 March 2021)
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