#stone pines

[thunderstruck9]

Eric Dever (American, 1962), Via Sacra, Roman Spring, 2025. Oil on linen, 60 × 72 in.

[juliepunkbabe]

Stone Pines, Rome, May 2023, Cinematographic film, processed ECN-2, pentacon 2.8/29, canon eos 300.

[eopederson]

Rovine e pini cembri, Palatino, Roma, 2009..

Once the most prominent part of Rome, the ruins of the palaces which once topped the Palatine Hill are now buried with pine trees growing atop them.

[florealegiardini]

A Neapolitan landscape (detail), c. 1897. Gottfried Seelos (Austrian, 1829–1900)

[histsciart]

Happy Arbor Day! 

Stone pines (Pinus pinea) are native to the Mediterranean region, and their pine nuts have been harvested for thousands of years. Unlike other conifers, stone pines grow with round tops, which earned them the other common name of "parasol pines".  

SciArt by C. Kastner for Iconographie des Conifères (1912-14) by Léon Gabriel Charles Pardé. View more in Biodiversity Heritage Library with thanks to Lloyd Library and Museum for digitizing.

[tranceberry]

View at stone pines (Pinus pinea) at the Trypiti beach on the island of Milos, Greece.

found by @utwo via @zblob

[eopederson]

Rovine sul Palatino con Pini cembri, Roma, 2009.

The pines are under threat from a disease. It is almost impossible to imagine Rome without them.

[eopederson]

Pini cembri (pinus pinaster), rovine de Ostia Antica, Lazio, 2019.

These pines so intimately associated with Rome are being felled by a disease. It is difficult to imagine what Rome without the pines might look like. The term “iconic” is overused and not infrequently misused, but the stone pines are indeed icons of the Italian city and of Italy more generally. When I see a picture of one I immediately feel a wave of nostalgia for Rome, its sights, its street life and its food. Let us hope the botanists come up with a solution to the disease problem before too many of the trees die.