As our Med Cruise continues in Rome, ya gotta love these great trees! I don’t usually do a whole post about trees, but this seemed like a great time to start. The stone pine tree changes in shape and size as it matures, much like a lot of people!

Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.
To start at the beginning of this series, visit Mediterranean Cruise.

Just an Amazing Tree!

The stone pine, with the botanical name Pinus pinea, is also called the Italian stone pine, umbrella pine and parasol pine, and is native to the Mediterranean region, growing in Southern Europe and Syria. In Italy, the stone pine has been a beautiful landscape element since the Italian Renaissance garden period, planted in gardens and parks around the world.

The stone pine is a coniferous evergreen tree that can exceed 82 ft in height. In youth it is a bushy globe, in mid-age an umbrella canopy on a thick trunk and, in maturity a broad and flat crown over 26 ft in width. The bark is thick, red-brown and deeply fissured into broad vertical plates.

Stone pines have been used and cultivated for their edible pine nuts since prehistoric times. Small specimens are used for Bonsai, and also grown in large pots and planters. The year-old seedlings are seasonally available as 7.9–11.8 in. tall table-top Christmas trees.  – READ MORE

Be sure to click on the photos to see captions.

The Arch of Constantine

Mature Stone Pines with broad and flat crowns shown at the Temple of Hercules Victor

Mid-age Stone Pine with umbrella canopy, in Spain. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine

A Beautiful Landscape Element

The stone pine, with the botanical name Pinus pinea, is also called the Italian stone pine, umbrella pine and parasol pine, and is native to the Mediterranean region, growing in Southern Europe and Syria. In Italy, the stone pine has been a beautiful landscape element since the Italian Renaissance garden period, planted in gardens and parks around the world.

The stone pine is a coniferous evergreen tree that can exceed 82 ft in height. In youth it is a bushy globe, in mid-age an umbrella canopy on a thick trunk and, in maturity a broad and flat crown over 26 ft in width. The bark is thick, red-brown and deeply fissured into broad vertical plates.

Many Uses

Stone pines have been used and cultivated for their edible pine nuts since prehistoric times. Small specimens are used for Bonsai, and also grown in large pots and planters. The year-old seedlings are seasonally available as 7.9–11.8 in. tall table-top Christmas trees.  – READ MORE

While I was searching for my own picture of the mid-age Stone Pine instead of using wikipedia’s, I ran across the photo up top that I forgot all about – the Temple of Hercules Victor. This temple is one of two small temples in the The Forum Boarium, and are among Rome’s best preserved religious structures. This temple was built in honor of the god Hercules.

Right next to the temple is The Fontana dei Tritoni (Fountain of the Tritons). For more information on the fountain, click here.

Temple of Hercules Victor

Fountain of the Tritons

“The temple is best described as a colonnade of twenty Corinthian-style columns arranged in a circle around an inner chamber. Inside was a statue of the god Hercules, as old as the temple itself, created by the renowned Greek sculptor Scopas the Younger. The temple is often incorrectly identified as the Temple of Vesta, after the circular temple at the Roman Forum. The temple of Hercules is remarkably well preserved, especially for what is considered the oldest marble temple in Rome.” – READ MORE

Next up: A Walk-about in Rome

Happy trails,
Barb