Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Its genus name is the ancient Latin word for the tree, probably built on a root meaning fat or swollen, in reference to the sticky {resin} that seeps from every wound. Its seeds ripen two to a scale on the upper face of a woody {cone}, and each seed is finished with a long papery wing. It carries a single straight central stem with side branches set in regular yearly {whorls}, so the crown of a young tree is symmetrical and tiered. Its green cones need two full summers to ripen, so cones of two different ages sit on the branches at the same time. The leaves are needles gathered two to a bundle, each bundle clasped at the base by a short papery {sheath} that stays on the twig. Those paired needles are stout at about one sixteenth of an inch (1.5 to 2 mm) thick, stiff, sharp-tipped and 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 cm) long. The species epithet is Latin for black, given for the sombre dark green of the foliage and the dark tone of old bark. In the wild it holds dry rocky mountain slopes from Spain and Morocco east through the Balkans to Turkey, Cyprus and Crimea, from near sea level to about 6,600 feet (2,000 m). Fold one of its needle pairs double in mild weather and it flexes and springs back, whereas the red-barked North American tree it is most often mistaken for snaps its needles cleanly in half. Described in 1785 from trees in the eastern Alps of the country whose name it still carries in English, it became the standard tough street and windbreak conifer of the American Midwest until Diplodia tip blight began browning the shoot tips of those plantings.

Accepted Answer

Pinus nigra

Name That Plant #125