Merkus pine (Pinus merkusii)

Tusam or gondorukem or Sumatran pine or Merkus pine (Pinus merkusii) is a species in Pinaceae, 25-45 meters high and 1 meter in diameter. Orange-red-brown bark, thick, cracked at the base of the stem, thin and scaly in the upper crown.

P. merkusii is endemic to Sumatra and the only natural distribution of members of Pinaceae in the southern part of the Equator. Most grow at an altitude of 400-1,500 meters, but sometimes at 90 meters and 2,000 meters. This tree generally covers the entire canopy in a large area.

The leaves are needle-shaped and paired, 15-20 cm long, less than 1 mm thick and green or yellowish in color. Woody cones have a length of 5-8 cm and a width of 2 cm at the base when closed, green but with aging will turn red-brown shiny.

Cones will open to 4-5 cm wide at maturity to release seeds in all directions. The seeds have 5-6 mm length and 15-20 mm wings to fly riding the wind. Tusam has separate male and female genital organs but in one individual.

Sumatran pine naturally dominates mountain tropical forests in Indonesia, but is widely cultivated in a number of places in Java and Sumatra to harvest sap on the stem as a raw material for turpentine and gondorukem or resina colophonium.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Pinaceae
Genus: Pinus
Subgenus: Pinus
Section: Pinus
Species: Pinus merkusii

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