Common name: Aleppo pine
Latin name: Pinus halepensis
Hebrew name: אורן ירושלים (Oren Yerushala’yim)
Family: Pinaceae
He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Isaiah 44, 14
The Aleppo pine is a Mediterranean evergreen tree with pairs of needle-shaped leaves. The pine is Israel’s most commonly planted tree and is a component of nearly all KKL-JNF afforestation projects. The species is drought resistant, rapidly growing, and produces the shadow that allows vegetation and flowers to grow and sprout in the forest. In fact, pine flourishes in the Yatir Forest of the northern Negev, where experts had originally doubted that it would be able to survive. Nevertheless, native Aleppo pine forests can still be found, particularly in the Carmel and Galilee regions.
The tree blooms in the spring, with the male flowers releasing clouds of pollen that are spread by the wind to the cone-structured female flowers. Aside from their outstanding properties, pine forests are able to renew themselves following forest fires, thanks to the female cones that protect the mature pine nuts. The tree lives, on the average, about 80 years, but there are many trees that have survived for much longer. We can assume that the Aleppo pine was rare in Israel until the beginning of the 20th century when it was planted by early foresters – this despite its given Hebrew name, the “Jerusalem pine” (Oren Yerushala’yim).
We thank Prof. M.E. Kislev, Bar-Ilan University, and Dr. A. Zehavi, KKL-JNF, Forestry Department, for their comments on this tree description. The above photograph is taken from the KKL-JNF Archives. | 