Péine Albanach
Latin name: Pinus sylvestris
The scots pine is an evergreen coniferous tree. You know that evergreens keep their leaves all year round.
Do you know what a coniferous tree is?
If a tree is coniferous, it means that cones grow on it. Have you ever collected cones at Christmas to decorate the house?
Scots Pine Woodland
Courtesy of Coillte Teoranta
Courtesy of Coillte Teoranta
The scots pine has a long, straight trunk. The bark is grey-brown in colour near the ground and changes to an orange colour near the top.
The shoots of the leaves grow flat against the stem in a circle. They look just like the scales of a small reptile. When they grow into full leaves they look as silver-green needles.
Be careful around a scots pine. These needles can be very prickly to touch!
Scots Pine
The flowers of the scots pine grow in May.
Have you ever seen a scots pine during the summer? Can you remember what colour the flowers were? Yellow and red!
The yellow flowers are the male and the red flowers are the female. Both colour flowers grow on the same tree.
The red flowers grow into a cone. This protects the seeds of the tree.
Did you know that the scots pine is the national tree of Scotland?
Scotland is the only place in Britain today that it grows naturally.
The oldest scots pine is in Sweden. It is thought to be about 700 years old.
Usually, a scots pine can live for up to 200 years.