Pinus mugo


Pinus mugo, known as bog pine, creeping pine, dwarf mountain pine, mugo pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, or Swiss mountain pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and Southeast Europe.

Distribution

Pinus mugo is native to the subalpine zones of the Pyrenees, Alps, Erzgebirge, Carpathians, northern and central Apennines, and higher Balkan Peninsula mountains - Rila, Pirin, Korab, Prokletije, etc. It is usually found from, occasionally as low as in the north of the range in Germany and Poland, and as high as in the south of the range in Bulgaria and the Pyrenees. Also in Kosovo it is found in the Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park.
Pinus mugo was planted in coastal Denmark for sand dune stabilization. It has naturalized and become invasive.

Subspecies

There are three subspecies:
Both subspecies have similar foliage, with dark green leaves in pairs, long.
The cones are nut-brown, long: and in subsp. mugo are symmetrical, thin-scaled and matt textured; and in subsp. uncinata are asymmetrical with thick scales on the upper side of the cone, thin on the lower side, and glossy textured.
An old name for the species Pinus montana is still occasionally seen, and a typographical error "mugho" is still repeated surprisingly often.

Uses

Cultivation

Pinus mugo is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, for use as a small tree or shrub, planted in gardens and in larger pots and planters. It is also used in Japanese garden style landscapes, and for larger bonsai specimens. In Kosovo, its trunk is used as construction material for the vernacular architecture in the mountains called "Bosonica".

Cultivars

Numerous cultivars have been selected. The following have been given the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit:
Cultivars with seasonal changes in foliage color include Pinus mugo 'Wintergold' and Pinus mugo 'Ophir'.

Culinary use

A recent trend is the increase in use of the mugo pine in cooking. Buds and young cones are harvested from the wild in the spring and left to dry in the sun over the summer and into the fall. The cones and buds gradually drip syrup, which is then boiled down to a concentrate and combined with sugar to make pine syrup.
The syrup is usually sold as "pinecone syrup"
or "pine cone syrup".

Invasive species

Pinus mugo is classed as a wilding conifer, and spreads as an invasive species in the high country of New Zealand, coastal Denmark, and other areas of Scandinavia.

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