This is a half-mile-long dense stand of stone and Aleppo pines that lies between a lagoon and the Aegean Sea. Another location in Greece is at Koukounaries on the northern Aegean island of Skiathos at the southwest corner of the island. Currently, Pinus halepensis is outcompeting stone pines in many locations of the forest. This coastal forest is at least 13 kilometres (8 miles) long, with dense and tall stands of Pinus pinea mixed with Pinus halepensis. In Greece, although the species is not widely distributed, an extensive stone pine forest exists in western Peloponnese at Strofylia on the peninsula separating the Kalogria Lagoon from the Mediterranean Sea. Examples are the Pineta of Jesolo and Barcola, the Urban Beach of Trieste.

In many parts of northern Italy, large parks with pine trees were laid out by the sea. The Iberian conifer forests ecoregion of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain and Portugal the Italian sclerophyllous and semideciduous forests ecoregion in France and Italy the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion of southern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia the Illyrian deciduous forests of the eastern coast of the Ionian and Adriatic Seas in Croatia and Albania and the Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion of the southern Balkan Peninsula in Greece. Pinus pinea, DoГ±ana National Park ( Andalusia, Spain) Pinus pinea is a diagnostic species of the vegetation class Pinetea halepensis. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. In coastal California, for example, where known popularly as the Italian stone pine in tree guidebooks since 1956, this evergreen is widely grown from Hollywood to Palisades Park (Santa Monica), to Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley, and in Marina del Rey, after World War II. They are widespread in horticultural cultivation as ornamental trees, planted in gardens and parks around the world.

Stone pines have been used and cultivated for their edible pine nuts since prehistoric times.

The species was introduced into North Africa millennia ago. It is also naturalized in North Africa, the Canary Islands, South Africa and New South Wales. The tree is native to the Mediterranean region, occurring in Southern Europe and the Levant. The stone pine, botanical name Pinus pinea, also known as the Italian stone pine, umbrella pine and parasol pine, is a tree from the pine family ( Pinaceae).

Pine needles