Needles in twisted pairs, and an upper trunk of flaking orange-pink bark above grey fissured bark below
Scots pine — Pinus sylvestris, Britain's only native pine.
Nature · Trees
Scots pine
Evergreen conifer · to 35 m
Pinus sylvestris — Pinaceae
Britain's only native pine and the defining tree of the Caledonian Forest, the Scots pine is recognised in any season by paired blue-green needles and the warm orange-pink bark of its upper trunk. Old open-grown 'granny pines' spread into flat-topped crowns. It is the national tree of Scotland and the host of the capercaillie, crested tit and Scottish crossbill.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Needles in pairs, blue-green and slightly twisted, 3–7 cm, held in a sheath
- ▸Upper trunk and branches with flaking orange-pink bark; lower trunk fissured grey-brown
- ▸Old open-grown trees have flat, spreading, layered crowns — 'granny pines'
- ▸Small pointed cones, grey-brown, with a tiny prickle at the centre of each scale
- ▸Straight leading shoot and whorled side branches when young
How to know it
Old open-grown specimens spread into flat, layered crowns known to foresters as granny trees
Scots pine.
The dominant tree of the Caledonian Forest, and the national tree of Scotland
Scots pine.
Capercaillie, crested tit, Scottish crossbill and red squirrel all depend on its remnant native forest
Scots pine. The Scottish crossbill is Britain's only endemic bird species.
Its resinous heartwood, once called deal, was tapped for turpentine and rosin and cut for pit props and telegraph poles
Scots pine.
It has the widest natural range of any pine, from Spain to eastern Siberia
Scots pine.
Quick-fire facts
- •Pinus sylvestris — sylvestris means 'of the woods'; it has the widest natural distribution of any pine
- •The only pine native to Britain; the national tree of Scotland
- •Needles are borne in pairs (two per fascicle), which separates it from the three-needled and five-needled pines
- •The Caledonian Forest remnants at Rothiemurchus, Abernethy, Glen Affric and Beinn Eighe are its strongholds
- •Its dependent wildlife includes the capercaillie, crested tit, Scottish crossbill (Britain's only endemic bird) and red squirrel
- •Old open-grown trees with flat spreading crowns are known as granny pines
- •Resin yields turpentine and rosin; the timber, sold as red deal, went into pit props, telegraph poles and railway sleepers
- •Pines were sometimes planted as landmarks along drove roads and to mark inns
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)