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Pinus peuce; photograph Ole Bjørn Braathen, CC BY, via GBIF CC BYOle Bjørn Braathen, CC BY, via GBIF

Pinus peuce Griseb.

Macedonian pine; Balkan pine; Greek stone pine

Pinaceae · Albania, Bulgaria +2 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Pinus peuce, photograph (c) Andy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pinus peuce, photograph (c) Andy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pinus peuce, photograph (c) Andy, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pinus peuce, photograph Ole Bjørn Braathen, CC BY, via GBIFPinus peuce, photograph Per Marstad, CC BY, via GBIFPinus peuce, photograph Per Marstad, CC BY, via GBIF 23 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-18.4°C
Record low -28.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,082mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Pinus peuce (Macedonian pine or Balkan pine) (Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian: молика, molika; Bulgarian: бяла мура, byala mura) is a species of pine native to the mountains of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, the extreme southwest of Serbia, and the extreme northwest of Greece, growing typically at (600-) 1,000-2,200 (-2,300) m altitude. It often reaches the alpine tree line in this area. The species was first described in scientific literature by August Grisebach in 1844, based on field observations of montane pines on Baba Mountain, above Bitola.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pinus peuce", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Pinus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (839 mm of 1,159 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and October to December. Mean temperature moves 19.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and April to June.

Rain

1,159 mm in the median year at the habitat, 839 mm of it March to July and October to December. Wettest month December at 120 mm, driest month September at 71 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 970 mm to 2,381 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,082 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,159 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -18.4 °C, the absolute minimum -28.5 °C, 8,247 frost nights in 44 years, 187.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -11.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -14.2 °C to -8.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -18.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +648 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Pinus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Pinus peuce through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -11.0 °C; 1,159 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost28.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-28.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 9–41RH 59–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 29 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-3 / -5–-1-2 / -5–01 / -1–46 / 4–812 / 9–1416 / 13–1718 / 15–2018 / 15–2014 / 11–169 / 7–113 / 0–5-2 / -4–0
Night °C-11 / -14–-8-11 / -14–-8-8 / -10–-5-4 / -6–-12 / -1–45 / 3–78 / 5–108 / 5–104 / 1–60 / -3–2-5 / -8–-3-9 / -12–-7
Rain mm86 / 72–21687 / 77–206101 / 79–196112 / 88–189111 / 88–156101 / 59–14188 / 59–11476 / 53–13471 / 58–212102 / 56–236104 / 64–313120 / 90–299
DLI11 / 10–1416 / 15–1924 / 22–2731 / 30–3336 / 35–3740 / 39–4341 / 39–4236 / 35–3827 / 26–3018 / 17–2112 / 10–149 / 8–11
RH %60 / 57–6461 / 60–6462 / 60–6462 / 60–6362 / 59–6360 / 56–6259 / 55–6159 / 54–6060 / 58–6260 / 58–6360 / 57–6461 / 58–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 29 grid cells holding the 60 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 959:4017 (42.025, 20.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -28.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -18.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 29 distinct grid cells holding 60 of the 60 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 959:4017 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.00_20.625, lapse-corrected +648 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1759 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlbania, Bulgaria, Greece, Yugoslavia · introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker41.75, 23.4 · in the densest population, 63 records (71% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 89 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 60 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 39 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 244 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 29 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 89 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pinus peuce, photograph 1did not loadPinus peuce, photograph 2did not loadPinus peuce, photograph 3did not loadPinus peuce, photograph 4did not loadPinus peuce, photograph 5did not loadPinus peuce, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Andy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); Ole Bjørn Braathen, CC BY, via GBIF; Per Marstad, CC BY, via GBIF (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pinguicula balcanica Pinguicula balcanica Lentibulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Annie EvankowSoldanella chrysosticta Soldanella chrysosticta Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Vladimír NemčekErysimum rhaeticum Erysimum rhaeticum Swiss treacle-mustard Photo: CC0, author not statedThymus alpestris Thymus alpestris Wild Thyme Photo: CC BY, Marek HrušovskýClematis alpina Clematis alpina Alpine Clematis Photo: CC0, author not statedGeum bulgaricum Geum bulgaricum Bulgarian avens Photo: CC BY, Salza Palpurina

Other Pinus 110 in the reference

Pinus albicaulis Pinus albicaulis Whitebark pine Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus aristata Pinus aristata Colorado bristlecone pine Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus arizonica Pinus arizonica Arizona pine Photo: CC BY, CK2AZPinus armandi Pinus armandi Pinaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, nekonoir on FlickrPinus attenuata Pinus attenuata Knobcone pine Photo: CC BY, Max MileyPinus × attenuradiata Pinus × attenuradiata Pinaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus ayacahuite Pinus ayacahuite Mexican white pine Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialPinus balfouriana Pinus balfouriana Foxtail pine Photo: CC0, author not statedPinus banksiana Pinus banksiana Jack pine Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronPinus bhutanica Pinus bhutanica Bhutan Pine Photo: CC BY, Tandin Wangdi Pinus brachyptera Pinaceae Pinus brutia Pinus brutia Calabrian pine Photo: CC BY, Ксения Волянская all 111 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Pinus cembra var. fruticosa; Pinus excelsa var. peuce; Strobus peuce. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Pinaceae
Described by
Griseb.
Native to
Albania, Bulgaria, Greece +1
Wild records
89 in range · 39 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 213 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (210 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.00_20.625, lapse-corrected +648 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 70 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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