Pinus koraiensis Sieb. & Zucc.

A tree reaching at its best 100 to 150 ft in height; young shoots thickly clothed with short, reddish-brown wool; winter-buds 1⁄2 in. long, cylindrical, with a tapered point, resinous. Leaves in fives, persisting to the third year; 31⁄2 to 41⁄2 in. long, dark glossy green, with white stomatal lines on two faces; margins toothed the whole length, the apex bluntish; leaf-sheaths about 1⁄2 in. long, soon falling. Cones about 5 in. long, 21⁄2 to 3 in. wide at the base, tapering thence towards the apex. Scales 11⁄4 in. wide, thick and woody. Seeds 5⁄8 in. long, not winged, edible.

Native of Korea, Japan, Manchuria, and the Russian Far East; introduced by J. G. Veitch in 1861. It is, perhaps, most closely allied to P. cembra, but the growth is more open, the leaves are much more spreading, blunter, and toothed quite to the apex. The cones, too, are twice as long. P. koraiensis is not a first-class pine in this country, growing slowly. A tree at Westonbirt, Glos., pl. 1880, measures 56 × 23⁄4 ft (1967). At Dawyck, Peeblesshire, there is a tree raised from seeds sent by Wilson from Korea in 1919. This measures 60 × 41⁄4 ft (1970).

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

specimens: Westonbirt, Glos., pl. 1880, 51 × 3 ft, dying (1977); Campden House, Glos., 62 × 4 ft (1983); Sidbury Manor, Devon, 60 × 41⁄2 ft (1977); Crarae, Argyll, 52 × 41⁄2 ft (1976); Dawyck, Peebl., the tree mentioned is not this species but P. armandii.

† cv. ‘Silveray’. – A small tree with silvery grey foliage, formerly known in some Dutch nurseries as ‘Glauca’. It received a Gold Medal when exhibited at Boskoop in 1978. There is a fine specimen in the Trompenburg Arboretum, Rotterdam.