Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pine trees (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus). About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of value as a human food. A ripe red jalapeno cut open to show the seeds For other uses, see Seed (disambiguation). ... Species About 115. ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth. ... Genera Subfamily Pinoideae     Pinus - pines (about 115 species) Subfamily Piceoideae     Picea - spruces (about 35 species) Subfamily Laricoideae     Cathaya (one species)     Larix - larches (about 14 species)     Pseudotsuga - douglas-firs (five species) Subfamily Abietoideae     Abies - firs (about 50 species)     Cedrus - cedars (two to four species)     Pseudolarix - golden larch (one species)     Keteleeria (three...

Stone Pine cone with pine nuts - note two nuts under each cone scale

In Europe, pine nuts come from the Stone Pine (Pinus pinea), which has been cultivated for the nuts for over 6,000 years, and harvested from wild trees for far longer. The Swiss Pine (Pinus cembra) is also used to a very small extent. Stone Pine cone with pine nuts - photo User:MPF File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Stone Pine cone with pine nuts - photo User:MPF File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Binomial name Pinus pinea L. The Stone Pine (Pinus pinea; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine native of southern Europe, primarily the Iberian Peninsula. ... World map showing Europe Europe is one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to various perspectives about Europes borders. ... Binomial name Pinus pinea L. The Stone Pine (Pinus pinea; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine native of southern Europe, primarily the Iberian Peninsula. ... Binomial name Pinus cembra Linnaeus 1753 The Swiss Pine or Arolla Pine (Pinus cembra; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine tree that occurs in the Alps and Carpathian Mountains of central Europe, in Switzerland, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. ...

In Asia, two species are widely harvested, Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis) in northeast Asia and Chilgoza Pine (Pinus gerardiana) in the western Himalaya. Four other species, Siberian Pine (Pinus sibirica), Siberian Dwarf Pine (Pinus pumila), Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii) and Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana) are also used to a lesser extent. World map showing the location of Asia. ... Binomial name Pinus koraiensis The Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine tree that occurs in eastern Asia, in Manchuria in northeast China, Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in the far east of Russia, Korea and central Japan. ... Binomial name Pinus gerardiana Wall. ... Perspective view of the Himalaya and Mount Everest as seen from space looking south-south-east from over the Tibetan Plateau. ... Binomial name Pinus sibirica The Siberian Pine (Pinus sibirica; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine tree that occurs in Siberia from 58°E in the Ural Mountains east to 126°E in the Stanovoy Khrebet mountains in southern Sakha Republic, and from Igarka at 68°N in the lower... Binomial name Pinus pumila (Pall. ... Binomial name Pinus armandii Franch. ... Binomial name Pinus bungeana Zucc. ...

In North America the main species are three of the pinyon pines, Colorado Pinyon (Pinus edulis), Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides). The other eight pinyon species are used to a small extent, as are Gray Pine (Pinus sabineana), Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana) and Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana). World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Species Section Cembroides     Pinus cembroides     Pinus orizabensis     Pinus johannis     Pinus culminicola     Pinus remota     Pinus edulis     Pinus monophylla     Pinus quadrifolia Section Rzedowskiae     Pinus rzedowskii     Pinus pinceana     Pinus maximartinezii Section Nelsoniae     Pinus nelsonii The pinyon pines (or piñon pines), are a group of pines, which grow in the southwestern United States and... Binomial name Pinus edulis Engelm. ... Binomial name Pinus monophylla Torr. ... Binomial name Pinus cembroides Zucc. ... Binomial name Pinus sabineana The Gray Pine (Pinus sabineana) is a pine endemic to California in the United States. ... Binomial name Pinus torreyana Parry ex Carr. ... Binomial name Pinus lambertiana Douglas The Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine that occurs in the mountains of Oregon and California in the western United States, and Baja California in northwestern Mexico; specifically the Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range, the Coast Ranges, and the Sierra...

Pine nuts contain about 31 grams of protein per 100 grams of nuts, the highest of any nut or seed. Pine nuts have been eaten in Europe and Asia since the Paleolithic period. They are also a source of dietary fibre. Pine nuts are an essential component of pesto, and are frequently added to meat, fish, and vegetable dishes. They are in particular used in the Cuisine of southwestern France, in dishes such as the salade landaise. They are also used in chocolates and desserts such as baklava. A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (Greek παλαιός paleos=old and λίθος lithos=stone or the Old Stone Age) was the first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. ... Dietary fibers are long-chain carbohydrates (polysaccharides) that are indigestible by the human digestive tract. ... Pesto is an Italian sauce, generally attributed to the Liguria region of Northern Italy, specifically the city of Genoa (pesto alla genovese), although at least a well known variant exists: pesto alla siciliana, meaning pesto from Sicily, and one of the main differences between the two kinds of pesto is... Various meats Cold Meat Salad Meat, in its broadest modern definition, is all animal tissue intended to be used as food. ... Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus: one of the most abundant species of fish in the world. ... Vegetables in a market Venn diagram representing the relationship between (botanical) fruits and vegetables. ... An example recipe, printed from the Wikibooks Cookbook. ... French cuisine is characterized by its extreme diversity. ... Chocolate most commonly comes in dark, milk, and white varieties, with cocoa solids contributing to the brown coloration. ... A plate with pieces of different types of baklava Baklava or baklawa is a popular rich, sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East and the Balkans, made of chopped nuts layered with phyllo pastry, sweetened with sugar or honey syrup. ...

Korean Pine pine nuts - unshelled, and shell, above; shelled, below

When first extracted from the pine cone, pine nuts are covered with a hard shell (seed coat), thin in some species, thick in others. The nutrition is stored in the large female gametophytic tissue that supports the developing embryo (sporophyte) in the centre. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense pine nuts are seeds; being a gymnosperm, they lack a carpel (fruit) outside. Korean Pine pine nuts - photo User:MPF File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Korean Pine pine nuts - photo User:MPF File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Binomial name Pinus koraiensis The Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine tree that occurs in eastern Asia, in Manchuria in northeast China, Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai in the far east of Russia, Korea and central Japan. ... A cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta (conifers) that contains the reproductive structures. ... A gametophyte is the haploid structure or phase of life of a sexually reproducing plant. ... In plants that undergo alternation of generations, a sporophyte is the structure, or phase of life, that contains a total complement of chromosomes: The sporophyte produces spores, in a process called meiosis. ... Hazelnuts from the Common Hazel Chestnut // Botanical definition A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains unattached or unfused with the ovary wall. ... Pinguicula grandiflora Botany is the scientific study of plantlife. ... Coast Douglas-fir cone This article lacks an appropriate Taxobox You can help Wikipedia by adding one. ... Amaryllis style and stigmas A carpel is the female reproductive organ of a flower; the basic unit of the gynoecium. ...

Unshelled pine nuts have a long shelf life if kept dry and refrigerated (at -5 to +2°C), but the shell must be removed before the nut is eaten; shelled nuts (and unshelled nuts in warm conditions) deteriorate rapidly, becoming rancid within a few weeks, or even days in warm humid conditions. Pine nuts are commercially available in shelled form, but due to poor storage, these rarely have a good flavour, all too often already being rancid before they are purchased. The most important species in international trade is Korean Pine, harvested in northeast China. In the United States and Mexico, the pinyon pines have traditionally been the most highly sought after pine nuts.

Pine nuts are called piñones in Spanish and pinoli or pignoli (locally also pinoccoli or pinocchi; Pinocchio means 'pine nut') in Italian. In the U.S., they are mainly harvested by Native American tribes; in many areas, they have exclusive rights to the harvest. Art by Fritz Kredel (1900-73) The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le Avventure di Pinocchio) is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi. ... ...

In the U.S., bad land use practices have led to the destruction of millions of hectares of productive pinyon pine woods by conversion to grazing lands, and in China, destructive harvesting techniques (breaking off whole branches to harvest the cones) and cutting of the trees for timber have led to losses in production capacity. Grazing is the regular consumption of part of one organism without killing it by another organism. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Lumber. ...

Other similar seeds

The large edible seeds of species of the Southern Hemisphere conifer genus Araucaria, notably the Monkey-puzzle (A. araucana) of Chile and the Bunya-bunya (A. bidwillii) of Australia, are also often called pine nut s. Southern Hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planets surface (or celestial sphere) that is south of the equator (the word hemisphere literally means half ball). On Earth it contains five continents (Antarctica, Australia, most of South America, parts of Africa, and Asia) as well as four... Orders & Families Cordaitales† Pinales   Pinaceae- Pine family   Araucariaceae- Araucaria family   Podocarpaceae- Yellow-wood family   Sciadopityaceae- Umbrella-pine family   Cupressaceae- Cypress family   Cephalotaxaceae- Plum-yew family   Taxaceae- Yew family Vojnovskyales† Voltziales† The conifers, division Pinophyta, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. ... Species See text Araucaria is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. ... Binominal name Araucaria araucana (Molina) K. Koch The Monkey-puzzle, or Pehuén, Araucaria araucana, is the hardiest species in the conifer genus Araucaria. ... Binominal name Araucaria bidwillii (Molina) K. Koch The Bunya-bunya (Araucaria bidwillii) is a species of tree in the genus Araucaria, family Araucariaceae. ...

References

• Vegetarian Society: Nutritional information