Pinus banksiana

Pinus banksiana, the Banks fir, is a northern pine native to Canada and the northern United States, where it is native to the boreal forests of the taigar zone - from Alaska to Nova Scotia. The species gets its name from the English botanist Joseph Banks, companion of James Cook on his first voyage around the world. It is one of the most hardy pine species in existence and grows naturally in the poorest, most sparse soils. Its growth form is irregular to broad cone-shaped, often somewhat picturesquely irregular with jagged branches that give the tree its own character. Available from Smits as a multi-stemmed tree of 300/350 centimetres in height and as a free plant of 200/250 centimetres. At maturity, it grows 10 to 20 metres tall. The trunk has a grey-brown, grooved plate-like bark. The needles are short - 2 to 4 centimetres - twisted and in pairs, dark green. They remain on the branches for 3 to 4 years. Fully evergreen, the same colour all year round. A botanically special feature of Pinus banksiana are its cones: they are crooked, curved and grey-brown and can remain closed on the tree for years. They open only during extreme heat - on fire, a phenomenon called ‘serotinia’. In forest fires, the seeds then germinate en masse. This adaptation to fire makes the bank spruce especially interesting ecologically. Growth is moderate to quite fast for a pine. Pinus banksiana is drought-tolerant, wind-resistant, salt-tolerant and highly resistant to air pollution.