Weeds of Australia - Fact Sheet

Top Scientific Name Synonyms Family Common Names Origin Naturalised Distribution Notes

Scientific Name

Pinus caribaea Morelet

Synonyms

Pinus bahamensis Grisebach
Pinus caribaea Morelet var. bahamensis (Grisebach) W.H. Barrett & Golfari
Pinus caribaea Morelet var. caribaea
Pinus caribaea Morelet var. hondurensis (Sénéclauze) W.H. Barrett & Golfari
Pinus 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.