3706

5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers

Pinus caribaea Morelet

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Pinus in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Rev. Hort. Côte d'Or 1: 107 (1851).

Caribbean pine, pitch pine, Nicaragua pine (En).

Central America, Cuba and the Bahama Islands; planted throughout the tropics, e.g. in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The comparatively low density of the wood limits the uses as a timber. The timber is most often used for light construction, light flooring, fruit boxes and toys. The woodpulp is used for the manufacture of paper, fibreboard and chipboard. The trees produce a good quality of oleoresin.

A large tree up to 45 m tall, but in plantations usually much smaller, with a straight and cylindrical bole, deeply fissured bark, and orange-brown twigs later turning grey-brown; needles in bundles of (2—)3(—5), 15—25 cm long, in whorls at the end of the shoots and soon shed, most of them in the second year; cones solitary, ovoid, 4—14 cm long, readily shed from the branches. Caribbean pine is often divided into 3 varieties: var. hondurensis Barrett & Golfari (Honduras pine) is most commonly planted in South-East Asia, var. caribaea and var. bahamensis Barrett & Golfari much less so. The latter variety is reported to have some tolerance to shoot moth attack. Pinus caribaea has often been mistaken for Pinus elliottii in the past. In Malesia it often does not produce seeds. See also the table on wood properties.

[68]Bolza, E. & Kloot, N.H., 1972. The mechanical properties of 56 Fijian timbers. Technological Paper No 62. Division of Forest Products, CSIRO, Melbourne. 51 pp.
[153]Corner, E.J.H., 1988. Wayside trees of Malaya. 3rd edition. 2 volumes. The Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. 774 pp.
[156]Cown, D.J., McConchie, D.L. & Young, G.D., 1981. Wood properties of Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis grown in Fiji. New Zealand Forest Service, Forest Research Institute, Rotorua. Wood Quality Report No 39 (unpublished). 73 pp.
[157]Critchfield, W.B. & Little, E.L., 1966. Geographic distribution of the pines of the world. Miscellaneous Publications 991. USDA Forest Service, Washington, D.C. 97 pp.
[163]Dallimore, W. & Jackson, A.B., 1966. A handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae. 4th edition. Revised by S.G. Harisson. Edward Arnold Ltd., London. xix + 729 pp.
[224]Farjon, A., 1984. Pines: drawings and descriptions of the genus Pinus. E.J. Brill, Leiden. 220 pp.
[225]Farjon, A., 1990. A bibliography of Conifers. Regnum Vegetabile 122. Koeltz Scientific Books, Königstein. 129 pp.
[288]Greathouse, T.E., 1973. Pilot plantations for quick-growing industrial tree species, Malaysia. Tree improvement in Malaysian conifer plantations. FAO Report No FO: SF/MAL 12, Technical Report 8. 45 pp.
[295]Green, C.L., 1974. Gum turpentine analysis of some Pinus kesiya, P. caribaea and P. oocarpa provenances. Tropical Science 16: 195–206.
[359]Keating, W.G. & Bolza, E., 1982. Characteristics, properties and uses of timbers. Vol. 1. South-East Asia, Northern Australia and the Pacific. Inkata Press Proprietary Ltd., Melbourne, Sydney & London. 362 pp.
[393]Lamb, A.F.A., 1973. Pinus caribaea. Vol. 1. Fast growing timber trees of the lowland tropics No 6. Commonwealth Forestry Institute, Oxford. 254 pp.
[417]Lee, Y.H., Engku Abdul Rahman & Chu, Y.P., 1979. The strength properties of some Malaysian timbers. Revised edition. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 34. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 107 pp.
[471]McCarter, P.S., 1983. Pinus caribaea: wood properties and uses. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux F30. 52 pp.
[488]Mirov, N.T., 1967. The genus Pinus. Ronald Press Company, New York. 602 pp.
[546]Plumptre, R.A., 1984. Pinus caribaea. Vol. 2: wood properties. Tropical Forestry Paper No 17. Commonwealth Forestry Institute, Oxford. 148 pp.
[764]Webb, D.B. et al., 1984. A guide to species selection for tropical and sub-tropical plantations. 2nd ed. Tropical Forestry Papers No 15. Unit of Tropical Silviculture, Commonwealth Forestry Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford. 256 pp.

M.S.M. Sosef

Sosef, M.S.M., 1993. Pinus caribaea Morelet. In: Soerianegara, I. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(1): Timber trees; Major commercial timbers. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea