Pinus cubensis

Pinus cubensis, or Cuban pine, is a pine endemic to the eastern highlands of the island of Cuba, inhabiting both the Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra mountain ranges.

Pinus cubensis
Tree near Baracoa, Cuba
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Gymnospermae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Pinaceae
Genus:	Pinus
Subgenus:	P. subg. Pinus
Section:	P. sect. Trifoliae
Subsection:	P. subsect. Australes
Species:	P. cubensis
Binomial name
Pinus cubensis Griseb.
Natural range of Pinus cubensis

Taxonomy

The closely related Hispaniolan pine (P. occidentalis), native to the neighboring island of Hispaniola, is treated as synonymous by some botanists. Modern systematic studies recognize P. cubensis it as a valid species,^[2] nevertheless, there is disagreement about whether the Sierra Maestra populations in the south are part of P. cubensis or conform another species named P. maestrensis.^[3]

The Sierra Nipe-Cristal and Sierra Maestra population may have diverged recently, as indicated by recent genetic studies that have found some ancestral genetic lineages that are shared among the two regions and only some rare variants exclusive for each region.^[4]