127550 Caledonian Pine Forest comprising Scots Pine, with an understorey of Bilberry and Heather. Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris (Pinaceae) HEIGHT to 36m. A conical evergreen when young and growing vigorously, but becoming much more open, and flat-topped with a long bole when an older tree. BARK Reddish- or grey-brown low down on the trunk, but markedly red or orange higher up the trunk in mature trees. The lower trunk is scaly, and higher up it becomes more papery. BRANCHES Irregular, with broken-off stumps of old branches remaining on the trunk lower down. LEAVES Needles, borne in bunches of 2, grey-green or blue-green, up to 7cm long, usually twisted with a short point at the tip. REPRODUCTIVE PARTS Male flowers are yellow and borne in clusters at the ends of the previous year’s shoots, shedding pollen in late spring. Female flowers grow at the tips of new shoots; they are usually solitary, and are crimson at first, ripening to brown by the end of the summer and persisting through the winter. In the second summer they enlarge and become green and bluntly conical, ripening to grey-brown in the autumn; they do not open their scales and shed seeds until the following spring. Each cone scale has a blunt projection in the centre. STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION A tree native to Scotland, and originally much of Britain, as well as a wide swathe of Europe from Spain to Siberia and Turkey.
