Tree to about 20 m tall but mostly 5-10 m and shrubby in cultivation. Bark mottled greenish white and brown, scaling like that of a plane tree and eventually becoming almost white in dry regions. Buds ovoid, pointed, about 1 cm long. Young shoots grey-green. Leaves in 3's, 5-8 cm long, stiff and sharp-pointed; sheaths deciduous. Cones solitary or paired, almost terminal 3-6 cm long, 2.5-4.5 cm wide; scales few, thick. Seeds about 1 cm long with small wing about 3 mm long. Mature trees extremely rare in cultivation but young trees are now occasionally offered in the nursery trade as they are slow-growing, drought tolerant.
NW China.
Bark smooth, scaling, plane-like; leaves well spaced, strongly aromatic (turpentine); cones smaller than those of the other plane-barked pine, P. gerardiana.
NSW: Mt Tomah (Bot. Gds); Sydney (Royal Bot. Gds).
Source: (1995). Pinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
