Pinus pinaster - Maritime pine

Pinus pinaster, or Maritime Pine, is a beautiful tree with a vertical trunk and a rounded crown. With a trunk often bare at the base, covered with a rough grey to red bark and a light canopy, it has an irregular, rather flat and spread out crown, visible from afar. Although native to North Africa and southern Europe, it requires fresh, sandy, deep, well-drained soil. Capable of reaching a height of 30 m (98.4 ft) in just a few decades, this tall tree is reserved for large gardens!

Pinus pinaster, also known as Corsican Pine or Mediterranean Pine, is a tall conifer of the Pinaceae family. It is native to Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Planted on a large scale under Napoleon III to create the Landes forest, it has found a climate and soil on the Atlantic coast that suits it perfectly. Maritime Pine, prized for its wood and resin, is a forest species of major economic importance for southwestern Europe.

It can reach a height of 20 m to 30 m (66 ft to 98.4 ft) with a spread of 15 m (49.2 ft) and quickly reaches maturity at around 40 or 50 years old. Fast-growing, when young it has a conical shape and then its crown takes on a beautiful rounded shape. Over time, its massive and very straight trunk becomes bare at the base, revealing a thick, reddish-brown bark that is deeply cracked and channelled, giving it a scaly appearance. The evergreen needles are thick and rigid, and are grouped in pairs. They measure 10 cm to 20 cm (3.9 in to 7.9 in) in length. Their colour is a shiny dark green, then they turn a tawny hue before falling. This tree first develops a deep root system, to withstand the wind, and then numerous trailing surface roots. Cone production occurs 5 to 6 years after sowing, in April-May. Each individual bears clusters of small male cones, scaly and covered in yellow pollen, and female cones, located at the top of the crown, which will transform into cones 10 cm to 18 cm (3.9 in to 7.1 in) in length, oblong in shape and reddish in colour, with a shiny finish.

Maritime Pine is a beautiful subject to plant as a standalone in the centre of a lawn or in a grove at the boundaries of a large property. It appreciates warm and sunny exposures, and deep, light, well-drained soils. Widely used for its resistant wood and resin, a preferred raw material for the production of turpentine, it is valuable for stabilising unstable and sandy soils. It suits larger gardens, where it will provide shade in summer and interest in winter. It tolerates rocky and even slightly calcareous soils perfectly and is well-suited to coastal areas with salt spray.