Italian cembro, cembra 'Swiss pine' (updated)

Swiss pine

Italian cembro, cembra, cirmolo 'Swiss pine (Pinus cembra)' is cognate to Friulan cirmul, Ladin cirum, zirm, Raetho-Romance ğèmber (Engadin), žember (Bergün/Bravuogn), Romanian zâmbru, and High German Zirbe, Zirbel, Zirbelkiefer. This would point to a substrate loanword *kemro- ~ *kirmo- which my colleague Marco Moretti considers to be of Tyrrhenian (Rhaetic) origin. 

Another name for the Swiss pine used in Switzerland is Arbe, Arve < *arbo-, with loss of the initial postvelar and denasalization.

For these words I'd propose a Vasco-Caucasian etymology from Caucasian *qq’wǝmV 'grain, fruit stone', Sino-Tibetan *kuam 'fruit (with) kernel', Yeniseian *ʔem- (~ x-) 'cone (of a coniferous tree)'.

Pine cone

 
This etymology would be also the source of Greek kônos 'cone', Altaic *tʃ^humu 'seed; cone' (Mongolian, Tungusic)¹ and Paleo-Basque *sini > Basque zi (S, Z), zĩ (R) 'oak acorn', with palatalization of the initial velar. 
 

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¹ Conflated in the EDAL with Turkic *tʃɨm 'turf, meadow; various kinds of grass (with seeds)'.