Pinus mugo

Pinus mugo, known as bog pine, creeping pine, dwarf mountain pine, mugo pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, or Swiss mountain pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and Southeast Europe.

Uses

Cultivation

Pinus mugo is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, for use as a small tree or shrub, planted in gardens and in larger pots and planters. It can also be used to create Japanese gardens and larger bonsai specimens. In Kosovo, its trunk is used as construction material for the vernacular architecture in the mountains called “Bosonica”.

Cultivars

Numerous cultivars have been selected. These cultivars have received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Cultivars with seasonal changes in foliage color include Pinus mugo ‘Wintergold’ and Pinus mugo ‘Ophir’.

Culinary use

A recent trend is the increase in use of the mugo pine in cooking. The spring harvest of young cones and buds is done in the summer. They are then dried in the summer and fall. The cones and buds gradually drip syrup, which is then boiled down to a concentrate and combined with sugar to make pine syrup.
The syrup is often sold as “pinecone syrup”.
or “pine cone syrup”.

Distribution

Pinus mugo is native to the subalpine zones of the Pyrenees, Alps, Erzgebirge, Carpathians, northern and central Apennines, and higher Balkan Peninsula mountains – Rila, Pirin, Korab, Prokletije, etc. It is usually found from 1,000-2,200 m (3,281-7,218 ft), occasionally as low as 200 m (656 ft) in the north of the range in Germany and Poland, and as high as 2,700 m (8,858 ft) in the south of the range in Bulgaria and the Pyrenees. It is also found in Kosovo’s Bjeshket e Nemuna National Park.

The Pinus Mugo was first introduced to Scandinavia, Finland, and the Baltic Region in late 1700’s. It was used for sand dunes stabilization and later as an ornamental plant around homes. The species has become an invasive species in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Norway, and is threatening fragile dune and heath habitats. In Estonia and Lithuania pinus mugo only occasionally naturalises outside plantations, sometimes establishing in raised bogs.