Black Pine of Samcheon-dong, Jeonju

The black pine (gomsol) belongs to the pine family; it is called black pine because its needles are coarser than those of the red pine, and because it grows along coastlines it is also called haesong ("sea pine"); its bark is also darker than that of the red pine, so it is called heuksong ("black pine") as well. While the winter buds of ordinary pine trees are red, those of the black pine are characteristically greyish white. Being resistant to sea wind and salt, it is widely planted as a windbreak along coasts. The Black Pine of Samcheon-dong, Jeonju is very rare in that it grows inland, and is estimated to be about 250 years old (at the time of designation). It is 5.0 m tall with a trunk circumference at breast height of 3.6 m; seen from below, a single trunk rises and then, from a height of about 2 m, spreads its branches horizontally, giving the appearance of a crane about to kick off the ground and take flight. It is said to have been planted to mark the burial ground of the Jang clan of Indong. In the early 1990s the tree became isolated owing to residential land development in the Anhaeng district, and its vigour weakened; in 2001 about two-thirds of its branches died after poison was injected into it, a sad sight for onlookers. Having grown for a long time under the attention of the ancestors, the Black Pine of Samcheon-dong, Jeonju was planted to mark an ancestral grave site and thus serves as cultural material, while its growth in an inland area also gives it high value as biological material; it is therefore designated and protected as a natural monument.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeonju, Jeonbuk

Designation

Natural Monument · 천연기념물