Native to the Mediterranean, the stone pine is a handsome tree, reaching 12 - 25 m in height, with a large, spreading, crown. It has a slow to moderate growth rate, but is long lived (60 - 100 years). Thinning the trees interior will increase the growth rate. It grows well in most soils, apart from alkaline soils and impermeable clays, in areas receiving at least 400 mm mean annual rainfall. It will tolerate both hot summers and light frost.
Although it provides a good windbreak when young, older trees tend to lose their lower needles as a result of shading. Because of its umbrella shaped crown, it is also an excellent shade tree.
It produces the edible pignolia nut, the growing of which is an important commercial industry in Europe. The seeds are eaten raw or roasted and salted. They are used in sweetmeats cakes, puddings, biscuits, soups, etc. In Romania the young cones are used whole to flavour game sauces.
Nutritional composition of the pignolia per 100 grams of edible portion is: Water - 5.6%, Energy - 552 calories, Carbohydrate - 11.6 g, Fat - 47.4 g, Protein - 31.1 g, Ash - 4.3 g, Thiamin - 0.62 mg and the digestion time is 2.75 hours.