Pinus peuce
Macedonian pine

Macedonian pine (Pinus peuce) is a conifer found in the mountainous areas of the Balkan Peninsula, where it is one of the most valuable conifer species.

The tree’s soft, light and durable wood is highly valued in construction, furniture production, wood-carving and cooperage. The resin of the tree is used in the chemical, optics and pharmaceutical industries, while local populations use the resin to cure wounds, stomach diseases and other ailments.

The Macedonian pine favours cold mountain climates and high air humidity, occurring mainly on silicate terrains. However, the tree is highly adaptable to different ecological sites and, as a result, is found in a wide altitudinal range. The tree grows from the lower border of the sub-mountain belt to the upper border of the sub-alpine forest belt, where it is often of shrub size. This adaptation ability makes the species highly useful for afforestation on high terrains as well as for protection against erosion.

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EUFORGEN’s publications on Abies alba

Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use

Pinus peuce - Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use for Macedonian pine

Publication Year: 2011
Author: Alexandrov, A.H.; Andonovski, V.

This species forms as pure, so mixed stands most often occur with Picea abies (L.) Karst., Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus mugo Turra and less often with Abies alba Mill., Pinus nigra Arn., Pinus heldreichii Christ., Fagus sylvatica L. and other species.

The contrasting bio-ecological peculiarities of Pinus peuce and Picea abies, of Pinus peuce and Abies alba and some other species have been combined very well in mixed, two-storeyed stands. That is why striving to establish such stands is reasonable from both the biological and ecological points of view.

The natural regeneration of Pinus peuce depends on a number of factors such as altitude, type of forest, rate and periodicity of seeding, crown closure, relief, application of corresponding felling, etc. The state of most of the Pinus peuce forests requires the processes of regeneration to be directed by foresters with a view to preserving, taking care of and propagating this species.

The in situ conservation method includes mainly the national and nature parks, reserves, seed stands and plus trees. By the ex situ method the genetic resources of Macedonian pine are preserved mainly through provenance testing plantations, progeny trial plantations, seed orchards and genebanks for seeds. Assessing the advantages of the two methods for conservation of genetic resources, in situ seems to be more reliable. The autochthonous populations of Pinus peuce in Pirin Mt., Pelister Mt. and Prokletije Mt. present valuable genetic resources for the introduction of this species in many countries of the Northern Hemisphere.

The area of Macedonian pine seed stands in Bulgaria is 693 ha and that of the seed orchards 10 ha, in Macedonia FYR - respectively 110 ha and 6 ha and in Serbia and Montenegro 10 ha of seed stands.
The high grade stands in which trees with spindle-shaped crowns and shallow-scaled bark fissuring prevail should be preferred for the purposes of breeding. The existence of two edaphotypes – silicate and carbonate – should be taken into consideration.

While selecting plus and candidate elite trees, individuals with narrow crown, fine and short branches of first order disposed approximately perpendicular to the stem should be selected.

This species forms as pure, so mixed stands most often occur with Picea abies (L.) Karst., Pinus sylvestris L., Pinus mugo Turra and less often with Abies alba Mill., Pinus nigra Arn., Pinus heldreichii Christ., Fagus sylvatica L. and other species.

The contrasting bio-ecological peculiarities of Pinus peuce and Picea...
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Acknowledgements

This distribution map has been developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre (partly based on the EUFORGEN map) and released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)


Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Data in Brief 12, 662-666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.05.007

The following experts have contributed to the development of the EUFORGEN distribution maps:

Fazia Krouchi (Algeria), Hasmik Ghalachyan (Armenia), Thomas Geburek (Austria), Berthold Heinze (Austria), Rudi Litschauer (Austria), Rudolf Litschauer (Austria), Michael Mengl (Austria), Ferdinand Müller (Austria), Franz Starlinger (Austria), Valida Ali-zade (Azerbaijan), Vahid Djalal Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), Karen Cox (Belgium), Bart De Cuyper (Belgium), Olivier Desteucq (Belgium), Patrick Mertens (Belgium), Jos Van Slycken (Belgium), An Vanden Broeck (Belgium), Kristine Vander Mijnsbrugge (Belgium), Dalibor Ballian (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Alexander H. Alexandrov (Bulgaria), Alexander Delkov (Bulgaria), Ivanova Denitsa Pandeva (Bulgaria), Peter Zhelev Stoyanov (Bulgaria), Joso Gracan (Croatia), Marilena Idzojtic (Croatia), Mladen Ivankovic (Croatia), Željka Ivanović (Croatia), Davorin Kajba (Croatia), Hrvoje Marjanovic (Croatia), Sanja Peric (Croatia), Andreas Christou (Cyprus), Xenophon Hadjikyriacou (Cyprus), Václav Buriánek (Czech Republic), Jan Chládek (Czech Republic), Josef Frýdl (Czech Republic), Petr Novotný (Czech Republic), Martin Slovacek (Czech Republic), Zdenek Špišek (Czech Republic), Karel Vancura (Czech Republic), Ulrik Bräuner (Denmark), Bjerne Ditlevsen (Denmark), Jon Kehlet Hansen (Denmark), Jan Svejgaard Jensen (Denmark), Kalev Jðgiste (Estonia), Tiit Maaten (Estonia), Raul Pihu (Estonia), Ülo Tamm (Estonia), Arvo Tullus (Estonia), Aivo Vares (Estonia), Teijo Nikkanen (Finland), Sanna Paanukoski (Finland), Mari Rusanen (Finland), Pekka Vakkari (Finland), Leena Yrjänä (Finland), Daniel Cambon (France), Eric Collin (France), Alexis Ducousso (France), Bruno Fady (France), François Lefèvre (France), Brigitte Musch (France), Sylvie Oddou-Muratorio (France), Luc E. Pâques (France), Julien Saudubray (France), Marc Villar (France), Vlatko Andonovski (FYR Macedonia), Dragi Pop-Stojanov (FYR Macedonia), Merab Machavariani (Georgia), Irina Tvauri (Georgia), Alexander Urushadze (Georgia), Bernd Degen (Germany), Jochen Kleinschmit (Germany), Armin König (Germany), Armin König (Germany), Volker Schneck (Germany), Richard Stephan (Germany), H. H. Kausch-Blecken Von Schmeling (Germany), Georg von Wühlisch (Germany), Iris Wagner (Germany), Heino Wolf (Germany), Paraskevi Alizoti (Greece), Filippos Aravanopoulos (Greece), Andreas Drouzas (Greece), Despina Paitaridou (Greece), Aristotelis C. 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Pridnya (Russian Federation), Andrey Prokazin (Russian Federation), Srdjan Bojovic (Serbia) , Vasilije Isajev (Serbia), Saša Orlovic (Serbia), Rudolf Bruchánik (Slovakia), Roman Longauer (Slovakia), Ladislav Paule (Slovakia), Gregor Bozič (Slovenia), Robert Brus (Slovenia), Katarina Celič (Slovenia), Hojka Kraigher (Slovenia), Andrej Verlič (Slovenia), Marjana Westergren (Slovenia), Ricardo Alía (Spain), Josefa Fernández-López (Spain), Luis Gil Sanchez (Spain), Pablo Gonzalez Goicoechea (Spain), Santiago C. González-Martínez (Spain), Sonia Martin Albertos (Spain), Eduardo Notivol Paino (Spain), María Arantxa Prada (Spain), Alvaro Soto de Viana (Spain), Lennart Ackzell (Sweden), Jonas Bergquist (Sweden), Sanna Black-Samuelsson (Sweden), Jonas Cedergren (Sweden), Gösta Eriksson (Sweden), Markus Bolliger (Switzerland), Felix Gugerli (Switzerland), Rolf Holderegger (Switzerland), Peter Rotach (Switzerland), Marcus Ulber (Switzerland), Sven M.G. de Vries (The Netherlands), Khouja Mohamed Larbi (Tunisia), Murat Alan (Turkey), Gaye Kandemir (Turkey), Gursel Karagöz (Turkey), Zeki Kaya (Turkey), Hasan Özer (Turkey), Hacer Semerci (Turkey), Ferit Toplu (Turkey), Mykola M. Vedmid (Ukraine), Roman T. Volosyanchuk (Ukraine), Stuart A'Hara (United Kingdom), Joan Cottrell (United Kingdom), Colin Edwards (United Kingdom), Michael Frankis (United Kingdom), Jason Hubert (United Kingdom), Karen Russell (United Kingdom), C.J.A. Samuel (United Kingdom).
 

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