#29 SCOTS PINE
Pinus sylvestris
Planted: 1912
This tree can be found in the American Section, near the Park Drive fence.
| Distribution: | The only pine native to northern Europe. Range from Western Europe to Eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains and north to well inside the Artic Circle. In the south of its range it is a mountain tree. Naturalized in Canada, northern U.S. states and New Zealand. Invasive in Ontario and Michigan. |
| Planting Date: | 1912 – planted by Captain Chaplin as part of his Pinetum. |
| Growth Habit: | A straight trunk (contorted only if lead shoot damaged when young). The crown is variable, with a variety of shapes common in wild populations from level branches to near-fastigiate. Open ovoid-conic when young, becoming dense, broadly domed or even flat-topped. |
| Bark: | Bark on lower stem thick, scaly-plated, grey-brown; on upper stem and branches, thin, flaking, orange-red. Branching uninodal. Shoots green at first, becoming grey-buff by the end of the first summer. |
| Leaf: | The only two-leaved pine with blue-green or grey-green leaves. In fascicles of two, always glaucous. Longest on vigorous young trees, 5 to 9 cm, shortest on old trees, 2.5 to 5 cm. Sheath grey, 5 to 8 mm, slowly eroding to 3 to 4 mm. |
| Flowers: | Buds ovoid-conic, orange-brown, thinly to occasionally thickly covered in white resin. |
| Fruit: | Male cones 8 to 12 mm, yellow or pink. Female cones 2.5 to 7.5 cm long, conic, symmetrical or nearly so, green ripening matt grey-buff to grey-green. Mature in November and December, 20 months after pollination. Opening February to April and falling soon after seed shed. Scales are rhombic, flat to protuberant and (rarely) hooked (with a full range of variation in between), with a minutely mucronate dorsal umbo. Seeds black, 4 to 5 mm, with a 12 to 20 mm wing. |
| Toxicity: | People used to eat the inner bark which contains a small proportion of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamin C. It would be ground to powder and baked with wheat flour to make bark bread – particularly recorded among the Sami people. |
| Potential tree size: | 25 to 40 m tall and up to 3.75 m girth |
| Uses: | An important tree in forestry. The wood is used for pulp and sawn timber products. Fibres can be used to make the textile known as ‘vegetable flannel’ which has a hemp appearance, but with a tighter, softer texture. |
| Plant Hunter: | Native |
| Introduction Date: | Native |
| Anecdotes and Comments: | One of the most popular Christmas trees from the 1950s through the 1980s. In the 1900s used for pit props in coal mining, it would make a cracking sound when in need of replacement. In Scandinavian countries, in preindustrial times, it was used for making tar and turpentine. |