Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Pinus sylvestris

Family

Pinaceae

Flowering season

May to June

English distribution

It is found throughout the country.

See the BSBI distribution map for Scots Pine

Habitat

It grows best on acid, peaty, sandy and stony soils.

It is a mixture of native and planted trees and grows in

woodland and on heaths and bogs.

It is found in old plantations and in shelter belts but is

not often planted nowadays as a timber tree.

According to Mabey (Flora Britannica ,1996), Scots Pine

used to be planted in the UK as a waymark tree on drover

routes and at farms to signify stopover places for drovers

and their animals.

Small groupings have also been planted on the top of

hills as landmark trees where they can be recognised

from a distance.

Description

Scots Pine is a native, evergreen, conifer growing up

to 40m.

It is, with Juniper and Yew, one of only 3 native conifers

in the UK.

Male cones replace short shoots, are oval and in large

groups.

As they ripen, they change from bright, lime-green to

cream.

They produce clouds of microspores.

Female flowers are formed on erect, long shoots up

to 10cm.

They are usually in 2s or 3s but there may be up to 5.

They start as pale red scaly bumps of just a few mm

and enlarge into a crimson cone up to 1cm.

After pollination at the end of May the cone scales enlarge

and the cone starts to point downwards and turn green.

It grows through the rest of the year and in the spring of

the second year, reaching up to 7cm.

The cone scales develop a characteristic diamond-shaped

marking.

Fertilization occurs in June of year 2 and the cone becomes

woody.

Seeds are shed over the next winter and spring.

It self-seeds and Scots Pine can be quite invasive on

heathland in the South.

Leaves are up to 7cm, blue-green, slightly twisted,

needle-shaped and in pairs.

Shoots are scaly.

The trunk is orange-brown at the top and grey below.

The bark flakes off exposing the brighter colour underneath.