IML Tree of the Month 3: Scots Pine

A Scots Pine above Loch Maree in Torridon

Sticking with the theme of coniferous trees, the third tree in my series is the Scots Pine.  One of only three conifers native to the UK and quite possibly my favourite tree (although I do love Cedar of Lebanons!)


Identification: 
Latin Name: Pinus Sylvestris

Height: up to 35m

Leaves: needle like, blue-green, slightly twisted, grow in pairs on short side shoots, 4-7cm long

Woodland Trust

Flowers: Monoecious. Male flowers are clusters of yellow anthers at the base of shoots.  Female flowers are small, red purple, globular and grow at the tips of new shoots.

Fruits: Female flowers develop into egg shaped cones after wind pollination.  They mature the following season, meaning there are always cones of different ages on each tree.  Mature cones are grey brown with a raised circular bump at the centre of each scale.  Normally these are in clusters of 2-4 and they point backwards along the stem.

https://treesforlife.org.uk/forest/species-profiles/scots-pine/

Bark: Scaly orange brown, particularly at the top, when young it can be more of a grey green colour, develops plates and fissures with age

Woodland Trust

Twigs and buds: Twigs are grey-brown and hairless

Age: lives to 300 years, tends to lose it's lower branches as it ages

Pinus Sylvestris http://www.conifers.org/pi/pi/s/sylvestris01.jpg

Uses: 

• Widely used in joinery and the construction industry.
• Used in the manufacture of telegraph poles, gate posts, fencing
• The tree can be tapped to make turpentine from its resin
• Dry cones can used as kindling
• Used for paper pulp

Fun Facts:

• It's the National Tree of Scotland
• One of the strongest softwoods available
• Groups of pines growing along old droveways helped travellers to find where they were going in changing weather
• A Scots pine in the forest of Muirward Wood, Perthshire, has the largest trunk in the UK.  It has a height of 31m and a girth of 6.09m
• Until around 8000 years ago Scots Pine made up most of the pine forests in the UK, particularly in Scotland and North England
• The most widely distributed conifer in the world, from sea level to 2400m
• Need a high level of light to germinate and so do not often regenerate under their own canopy but rather seedlings are found in open areas and clearings.

This website has lots of really good facts about the Scots Pine's relationship with other things.

IML Tree of the month 2:The Larch

The Larch is one of the most common trees in the Alps, and is almost unique in that it is a deciduous conifer.  A conifer is a 'tree which bears cones and needle-like or scale-like leaves that are typically evergreen.'  This comes from the Latin, conus, meaning 'cone-bearing'.  Deciduous means '(of a tree or shrub) shedding its leaves annually.'  From the Latin, deciduus, from decidere, meaning 'to fall down or off.  Interestingly it can also denote the milk teeth of a mammal which are shed after a time.

It is part of the family Pinaceae.

Close up of a Larch in winter

Identification

Height: 20-50m tall

Needles: flattened, soft, 20-40mm long, under 10mm wide, and in tufts of 20-50 on short woody knobs, or radially arranged on younger shoots on twigs.  These turn from light green to golden yellow before falling.  Japanese Larch leaves tend to be more blue-green, European Larch is a brighter fresh green.

Cones: 1-9cm long, small.  On European Larch the cone scales are pressed towards the body of the cone, however on Japanese Larch these are backwards like rose petals.

Bark: Pinky brown, thick, developing wide fissures with age.  Twigs are amber or slightly pink and hairless.
Buds: Golden brown

Age: 250 years
European larch is monoecious, both male and female flowers are found on the same tree.  Male ones form on the underside of shoots, female ones are at the tips of shoots, in flower like clusters of scales in pink, green or white, called 'larch roses'.  The female flowers ripen into brown cones 30-40mm long with a hollow top.


Larix Decidua, the European Larch from http://fiori-di-bach.reflexal.com/images/tavole%20botaniche/Larix_decidua.jpg

Uses
One of the first trees used for timber - resistant to rop
As a tough, waterproof and durable, coarse-grained wood Larch is used in a variety of situations including:
Building yachts
Fencing and gates
Garden Furniture
Roof shingles
Coffins
The flowers were used in herbal remedies centuries ago to treat constipation, rheumatism, bronchitis, bleeding gums, earache and gout.
Europeans wore items made of Larch to protect themselves from evil spirits

A Larch tree we saw out skiing today in the Ecrins, French Alps

Fun facts
They can retain old cones on their stems for many years
Introduced to the UK in the early 17th Century originally as an ornamental tree before it's properties as a timber were 'found'
Popular in Bonsai culture
In central and NE Asia childless women believe that spending a night under a Larch will help them conceive a baby.
The city of Venice is almost entirely built in Larch (the piles which hold the city up)
The Society of Arts in England used to present gold medals for superior Larch tree cultivations.
A sacred larch existed in Austria until 1859.  It was said that if you cut the tree you would be wounded to the same depth, and would not heal until the tree did.

An IML identifying a Larch earlier today.  Made harder by the fact that it was a very small tree with needles on it!

 

IML winter tree of the month 1:Norway Spruce

In preparation for my International Mountain Leader award winter assessment, I need to learn a lot more about the winter environment.  To help me do this I thought I would pick one tree a month to research and learn about and write a short blog post on.  Any comments or other facts would be much appreciated.

Lots of Noway Spruce trees in the Valais

What tree would come first other than the Norway Spruce (or Picea Abies to give it it's Latin name).  The 'Christmas tree' of the Alps, present everywhere, native to Europe and sometimes referred to as the Mountain Spruce.

Identification sheet from http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/softwoods/norway-spruce/  Note the different name at the bottom in Latin, there are in fact two Latin names for the Norway Spruce.

Identification

Height: up to 63m tall (50m in Scotland)

Needles: 15-25mm long, dark green with faint white lines on all sides, stiff, pointed and squared

Cones: up to 25cm long, slender, brown, 

Bark: 'coppery grey-brown'

Dark green upwards reaching branches with hanging foliage

Age: lives over 100 years

Norway Spruce, close up of needles and cone

Uses

Paper, construction, christmas trees - most notably in London and New York (although they shed their needles very quickly so are not as common now as they were), musical instrument sound boards.  Often planted in gardens as a wind break

Bark of a Norway Spruce tree

Fun facts

• Fast growning, up to 1m per year until around 20years old, low cost softwood, whitish colour timber and fast burner.
• Picea is thought to come from Pix meaning pitch.
• The resin was once used for Turpentine and pitch (for resin).
• It's fresh shoots were once used for making Spruce beer.
• Stradivarius apparently used old ship oars made from it for his violins
• Can withstand winds of up to 100mph as it's roots are deep and spreading
• For more information on the history of Christmas trees look here: http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees