<i>MODERN DISTRIBUTION OF SCOTCH PINE IN THE CENTRAL MOUNTAIN SYSTEM OF SPAIN: DIALECTIC ABOUT AFFORESTATION</i>

Abstract

During the last decades, many Iberian pine forests have been defined as «old reforestations». This is an epithet and also an argument constantly repeated in the field of phytosociology and in botany on the whole, which has been used by many authors to deny any possible role of pine woodlands upon the natural vegetation. This is what has happened with most of the Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests from the Central Mountain System. However, palynological and historical data show that pine woodlands have an age-old presence in areas where they are not considered as natural; these data also show a progressive area decrease during the history, and also, the lack of «old reforestations » aimed to artificially extend its distribution area. For all these reasons, the «old reforestations» argument used for the geobotanical interpretation of the Scotch pine forests from the Central Mountain System must be rejected. In like manner, the indiscriminate use of the term «reforestation» as a synonym of «introduced or aloctonous», which has been used for many pine woodlands, has led to some misunderstandings and serious interpretation mistakes which must be corrected studying the vegetation existing before the reforestation was made. That way it would be possible knowing what formations are in their natural range and what are not, regardless the anthropic use they have been subjected to.