Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Pinus kwangtungensis

Friday, July 27, 2012

Pinus kwangtungensis

Pinus kwangtungensis in the Cascadia Garden October 2011

Pinus kwangtungensis at Washington Park Arboretum November 2011

Pinus kwangtungensis cones from the Cascadia Garden

Kwangtung Pine is a beautiful tree. I'm completely enchanted by the specimen I got from Terra Nursery (in Redmond, WA) at a Northwest Horticultural Society plant sale in 2006. It has been popular with tourists at the Cascadia Garden, always receiving positive comments. The blue-green color is excellent. Both new & old cones are attractive. It has taken well to life in a large pot. I was excited to recognize the tree at the Washington Park Arboretum, along the east side of the East Drive near the Pacific Rim Garden, in November of 2011. It has a very fine, slender form. I would certainly plant it, if there were enough space. In fact, I'd plant a grove. According to the South China Botanical Garden, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, P. R. China: Pinus kwangtungensis is a vulnerable species in China. It has often been confused, and even united, with Pinus fenzeliana; however, the two species are not considered here to be conspecific. It is found on hills, slopes, mountain ridges, summits at 500-1600 meters in N Guangdong, SW Guangxi, S Guizhou, Hainan, S Hunan & Vietnam.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.