Mexican Weeping Pine
Pinus patula Schlect. & Cham.
On a recent I.D.S visit to a private collection, we were shown a specimen of Pinus patula, its common name being ‘Mexican Weeping Pine’. It’s not the first time that I have seen this plant, but for me, this is the most mature specimen As its name would suggest, it’s a native of Mexico, first recorded and introduced in 1828. A six foot specimen was recorded by Loudon in 1837, which he found growing in the garden of A.B. Lambert.
Reaching an average height of 40-50 ft, it branches low and has a spreading rounded top when mature; old bark rough, with a reddish tinge. Its needles are grouped in bundles of three, occasionally in fours or fives, minutely toothed on the margins and can reach over nine inches.
One of the exciting elements to working at the University of Oxford, Harcourt Arboretum, is working through a variety of landscape issues. Botanic gardens and arboretums are living collections, which in turn results in certain plants being removed. Whilst I feel we have a responsibility to identify secondary and tertiary uses for the material generated from large tree removal, for example, it’s exciting (as well as incredibly important) to consider the next generation of plants. I can’t help walking around other collections and having ‘plant envy’!
