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Scots Pine

Pinus sylvestris

Also called Scotch Pine, Native Scots Pinewood, Scots Pine, Scotch Pine, Baltic Pine

Scots Pine
Photo: Mickaël Delcey (Silverkey), CC BY-SA 3.0

Scots pine is a large, long-lived native conifer of Eurasia, grown mainly as a forest and timber tree rather than a garden plant. It thrives in full sun and poor, sandy or rocky soils, and it is not suited to fertile, wet ground where other trees outcompete it.

Family
Pinaceae (Pine family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Established trees need little supplementary water; water young trees during dry spells.
Soil
Poor, sandy, free-draining soil; tolerates rocky ground and peat.
Temperature
Very cold hardy, tolerating deep winter cold well inside the Arctic Circle; protect young plants from hot, dry conditions.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Europe to Russian Far East and Caucasus
Climate
temperate

About

Pinus sylvestris is a species of conifer, a pine, in the family Pinaceae. It is native to Eurasia. It is known as the Scots pine in English, alternatively as the Scotch pine in the United States, and occasionally the Baltic pine or European red pine. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orange-red bark.

Where it grows

Pinus sylvestris is the only pine native to northern Europe, ranging from Western Europe to Eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains and Anatolia, and north to well inside the Arctic Circle in Fennoscandia. In the north of its range, it occurs from sea level to 1,000 m (3,300 ft), while in the south of its range it is a mountain tree, growing at 1,200–2,600 m (3,900–8,500 ft) altitude. Its distribution intersects with T. piniperda's habitat, making the beetle a primary pest of the tree.

Uses

Pinus sylvestris is an important tree in forestry. The wood is used for pulp and sawn timber products. A seedling stand can be created by planting, sowing, or natural regeneration. Commercial plantation rotations vary between 50 and 120 years, with longer rotations in northeastern areas where growth is slower.

Other Pinus plants

Rocky Mountains Bristlecone Pine · Arizona Pine · Chinese White Pine · Mexican White Pine · Jack pine · Turkish Pine · Lacebark Pine · Canary Islands Pine · Caribbean pine · Swiss Pine · Mexican Pinyon · Sand Pine

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pinus sylvestris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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