Pinus sylvestris – Scots Pine

  Scots pine is an evergreen tree, when young, it is conical and grows vigorously but when mature, it becomes more flat-topped with a long bole. Scots pine is, as can be inferred from the name, native to Scotland, but also to much of Britain and a wide area of Europe. Native pinewoods are only found in Scotland, supporting a very unique variety of life, including the Scottish Crossbill which is found nowhere else in the world as it has evolved to be able to extract pine seeds from the cones.

  Scots Pine bark can be reddish or gray-brown and in mature trees, can be orange or red higher up in the tree. It’s branches are very irregular and stumps from broken branches are common in Scots Pine. Its leaves are long thin needles that grow in pairs, usually green or green-blue, growing up to around 7cm long with a sharp point at the tip. Scots Pine’s male flowers grow in yellow clusters, at the end of the previous years shoots shedding pollen at the end of spring. Female flowers are usually on new shoots, on their own, starting crimson, turning brown towards the latter end of summer and surviving over winter. During the second summer they will turn green and enlarge, maturing to become grey-brown in autumn and eventually shedding in spring.