Plants & Nature
Scots pine
Tags: Trees Description: The leaves of the Scots pine are thin, pointed needles. The pine needles always sit in pairs, two together, unlike the Norway spruce, where the needles sit singly.
Tags: Trees Description: The leaves of the Scots pine are thin, pointed needles. The pine needles always sit in pairs, two together, unlike the Norway spruce, where the needles sit singly. The needles of the Scots pine are much longer than those of the spruce. The Scots pine has a long trunk with the crown high up. As a result, a great deal of light reaches the ground. The bark is thicker than that of the spruce, brownish and coarse low down on the trunk. Higher up it becomes smoother and more orange. It has developed the coarse bark and the high crown because it often grows in dry places where there is a greater risk of forest fire. The largest pines, with the thickest bark and the highest crowns, have been able to survive such fires. The cones are rounded like eggs. They are green in the first year and brown the year after. The Scots pine is a keystone species because it builds the whole forest and creates a living space for all the species that live there. Some species depend on the pine as a habitat and others as a source of food. Use: When a pine is wounded in the bark, resin comes out, which is meant to cover the wound like a plaster to stop insects and fungi from getting in. Pine wood saturated with resin is called tyri. When pines die, they concentrate the resin in the heartwood and form tyri-wood. Tyri has been used to produce tar. It burns very well and with a calm, dark flame, but can produce a fair amount of soot. Habitat type: Forest Edible: No Written by: Lærke Stewart
, via Wikimedia Commons](Furu/Gammel_furu.jpeg)
An old Scots pine. Photo: Eaglestein, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
, via Wikimedia Commons](Furu/Furu.jpg)
Pine needles and cone. Photo: Arnstein Rønning, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Next steps
- Oak — another tree species
- Norway spruce — another tree species
- Aspen — another tree species
- Forest — the biotope
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Learn more
- Artsdatabanken — species, status, the Red List
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- Botanisk forening — the Norwegian botany community