Click on images to enlarge
habit (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
bark on base of main trunk (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
branches with leaves and clusters of young male cones (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of three needle-like leaves grouped together in a sheath (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of old leaves showing fine lengthwise groove (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
cluster of older male cones (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
sapling naturalised in northern Queensland (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
Scientific Name
Pinus caribaea Morelet
Synonyms
Pinus bahamensis GrisebachPinus caribaea Morelet var. bahamensis (Grisebach) W.H. Barrett & GolfariPinus caribaea Morelet var. caribaeaPinus caribaea Morelet var. hondurensis (Sénéclauze) W.H. Barrett & GolfariPinus hondurensis Sénéclauze
Family
Pinaceae
Common Names
Bahamas pitch pine, caribaea pine, Caribbean pine, Honduras Caribbean pine, Honduras pine, pitch pine, southern pine
Origin
Native to southern Mexico, Central America (i.e. Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and the Caribbean (i.e. the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos Islands and western Cuba).
Note: Three varieties of this species are noted in its natural range (i.e. Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis from the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos Islands; Pinus caribaea var. caribaea from western Cuba; and Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis from southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua). Varieties of this species are not currently recognised by Australian herbaria, and so naturalised specimens have not been allocated to one of them. However, it is Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis that is mainly promoted and cultivated in forestry plantations, and it is likely to be this variety that has become naturalised in Australia. In the last ten years or so, a locally developed hybrid of Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis and slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. elliottii) has also been widely planted in forestry plantations in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales.
Naturalised Distribution
Naturalised in northern and central Queensland.
Also naturalised on some Pacific islands (e.g. the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Hawaii and New Caledonia).
Notes
Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea) is regarded as an environmental weed in northern Queensland and as a potential environmental weed in Western Australia.