48. Pinus bhutanica Grierson, Long & Page PINACEAE

This species was distinguished from the blue pine (Pinus wallichiana, Number 13 of the Trail) only in 1980, as part of the research undertaken for the Flora of Bhutan at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Like the blue pine, its needles are in clusters of five, but it differs in its gracefully drooping foliage. It occurs from Central Bhutan eastwards to North-West Yunnan and South-East Tibet, and in India occurs in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. It grows in cool broad-leaved forest, between altitudes of 1750 and 2440 metres.

Photograph of a cone of Pinus bhutanica, RBGE herbarium