It is a medium-size evergreen coniferous tree growing to 15–25 m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m.[1] The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.5–2.5 cm long and 2 mm wide by 0.5 mm thick, glossy dark green above, and with two greenish-white bands of stomata below.

The cones are 10–16 cm long and 4 cm broad, with about 150 scales, each scale with an exserted bract and two winged seeds; they disintegrate when mature to release the seeds.

Scalone in the Madonie Mountains in the north-central part of Sicily.

As a result of deforestation, it is now extremely rare, with only 27 mature trees and a few seedlings are surviving in situ; replanting programmes are meeting with limited success due to heavy grazing pressure by livestock belonging to local farmers.

Anyway, assisted migration programmes are being carried out by the University of Palermo as well as by the CREA Research Centre for Forestry and Wood of Arezzo in order to preserve the gene pool from the effect of the climatic belt shift.