Swiss stone pine or cembra pine

Description:

A champion of high altitude survival! The Swiss stone pine or arolle is a five-needled pine which, together with the larch, is often found as far up as the Central European forest limit. In winter, it can withstand temperatures as low as –40°C.

Habitat:

It typically grows from 1,200 m (3,900 ft) to 2,300 m (7,500 ft) ASL. Occurs in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains of Central Europe, in Poland (Tatra Mountains), Switzerland, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. Spotted here at 2000 m.

Notes:

Cembra pines are assisted in the dispersal of their seeds by a nutcracker, Nucifraga caryocatactes, which buries nuts for its food reserves. To germinate these need a humus-rich soil. The cembra pine nuts hidden by the nutcrackers find ideal germination conditions at a depth of 3 to 5cm in the soil. The last shot shows a group of these pines at the extreme of the tree line on the edge of a glacier. On the foreground of the first shot Rhododendron ferrugineum can be seen.