Scots Pine - Pinus sylvestris

Scots Pine, Neil McIntyre

John Ruskin wrote “When the sun rises behind a ridge of Pines, and these pines are seen from a distance of a mile or two against his light, the whole form of the tree, trunk, branches and all, becomes one frost-work of intensely brilliant silver, which is relieved against the clear sky like a burning fringe, for some distance on either side of the sun”

Our native Scots Pine was the only pine to survive and recolonise after the last ice age, slowly pushed North by broadleaf trees as the climate warmed; its native range now is the Highlands of Scotland, a vestige of the Caledonian Forest. Since the 17th Century intense deforestation firstly to provide timber for ships, then pit props, telegraph poles and railway sleepers together with the Highland Clearances left only 25,000 acres of native pinewood by 1970. Huge flocks of sheep and herds of deer effectively prevented regeneration, cut pine stumps do not regrow like broadleaf trees and any seedling pines were eaten. Trees for Life is a charity based at Findhorn Bay in NW Scotland whose mission is to restore 600 square miles of the great Caledonian Forest, a wonderful forest ecosystem with Scots Pine as the keystone species, it being the tallest and longest lived tree in the forest. Since 1989 they have planted over half a million native trees.

We do, of course, have plenty of clumps of this beautiful tree South of the border. Winnie the Pooh , Christopher Robin, Piglet and friends often wandered up to the Enchanted Place, a hilltop stand of Scots Pine in Ashdown Forest. Hilltop Pines were planted across England and Wales as waymarks for travellers and drovers moving their stock over large distances.

Local to us in Essex is the Breckland of Suffolk, here the old hedgerows are marked by twisted and gnarled old pines, sculpted first by man and then by the winds off the North Sea.

Scots Pine branch, Wild Scotland.org

Scots Pine is monoecious, separate male and female flowers grow on the same tree. Male flowers are clusters of yellow anthers at the base of shoots, clouds of pollen are released into the  air to be taken to the female flowers (cones) on the wind. Female flowers grow at the tips of new shoots as small reddish purple structures, once pollinated they develop into green cones which become woody as they mature and open on dry days in the following year to release the seeds, the cones close when wet.

Scots Pine is a remarkable useful tree, its timber, resin, sap, bark, roots, cones, oil, needles and scent all have their uses to man and the pine forests are home to red squirrel, capercaillie, Scottish Crossbill and Scottish Wildcat to name but four.

Rupert Brookes, whose grave I visited a few years ago on the Greek Island of Skyros, wrote

“ very beautiful and still, and bending over

Their sharp black heads against a quiet sky,

And there was peace in them; and I

Was happy, and forgot to play the lover

And laughed, and did no longer wish to die,

Being glad of you, O pine-trees and the sky!”

From Pine Trees and the Sky: Evening.