Pinus cubensis, or Cuban pine, is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae, a pine endemic to the eastern highlands of the island of Cuba, inhabiting both the Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra mountain ranges.
Taxonomy The closely related Hispaniolan pine (P. occidentalis), native to the neighboring island of Hispaniola, is treated as synonymous by some botanists. Modern systematic studies recognize P. cubensis it as a valid species,Farjon, A. 1997: Pinus (Pinaceae), Flora Neotropica, Monograph 75 (together with Brian T. Styles). New York : The New York Botanical Garden. nevertheless, there is disagreement about whether the Sierra Maestra populations in the south are part of P. cubensis or conform another species named P. maestrensis.López-Almirall A. 1982. Variabilidad del Género Pinus (Coniferales: Pinaceae) en Cuba. Acta Botánica Cubana 12: 1–32.
The Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra population may have diverged recently, as indicated by recent genetic studies that have found some ancestral genetic lineages that are shared among the two regions and only some rare variants exclusive for each region.Jardón-Barbolla, L., Delgado-Valerio, P., Geada-López, G., Vázquez-Lobo, A., & Pinero D. (2011). Phylogeography of Pinus subsection Australes in the Caribbean Basin. Annals of Botany 107: 229-241.
References
External links
Pinus cubensis description (Gymnosperm Database)