Description
Pinus merkusii is a medium-sized to large tree, reaching 25–45 metres (82–148 ft) tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1 metre (3.3 ft). The bark is orange-red, thick and deeply fissured at the base of the trunk, and thin and flaky in the upper crown. The leaves ('needles') are in pairs, very slender, 15-20 cm long and less than 1 mm thick, green to yellowish green.
The cones are narrow conic, 5-8 cm long and 2 cm broad at the base when closed, green at first, ripening glossy red-brown. They open to 4-5 cm broad at maturity to release the seeds. The seeds are 5-6 mm long, with a 15-20 mm wing, and are wind-dispersed.
Read more about this topic: Sumatran Pine
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
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—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)