Honduras · #2 tree The pine is the national tree of Honduras; pines appear on the country’s coat of arms
Ocote pine
Pinus oocarpa · locally: pino ocote
The pine on Honduras’s coat of arms – its resinous wood, “ocote”, has served for centuries as kindling in rural homes.
A pine growing to 20–35 m, with long needles usually in bundles of five (less often three or four) and distinctive egg-shaped cones on long stalks that stay on the tree for years. It forms extensive, open forests on the drier mountain slopes at about 600–2,000 m and copes well with fire. The wood is extremely resinous – ocote splinters burn even when damp. In 2014–2016 the pine forests of Honduras were severely damaged by an outbreak of the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis.
Significance in the country
The pine is the national tree of Honduras, and pine forests are the most typical mountain landscape in the centre and west of the country. They provide timber, resin and firewood, and ocote is sold at markets everywhere.
Where it grows
The mountainous interior: Francisco Morazán (around Tegucigalpa), Olancho, El Paraíso, Comayagua, Yoro, Intibucá and La Paz, and the western departments of Lempira, Ocotepeque, Copán and Santa Bárbara.
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