Caledonian crisis facing Scots pine

Pinus sylvestris has been part of Scotland’s landscape for thousands of years, but action is needed to preserve the rich habitat it provides

There is a saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Well, they don’t come much tougher than this one — the Scots pine, or Pinus sylvestris. The fact that you will see old gnarled individuals clinging on to the edges of rock faces well up the side of some Scottish mountains is a testament to precisely how gritty this tree is.

It appeared in this country about 9,000 years ago as the temperature increased and plants were able to colonise the newly exposed land surface. However, the odd 1,000 years or so is a relatively short time in this sense and within a few millennia it had retreated to Scotland, where it is still found today.

The Scots pine is no ordinary conifer, no mushy softwood here.

The fact that it has evolved to grow in very cold, extreme conditions means that the wood is far superior to any of our imported evergreens, depending upon what you are looking for, that is.

Sometimes called ‘red deal’ due to the colour of the heartwood, the timber from the Scot has had numerous uses in the past and other products were extracted from it. It was so durable — due to the tight, tough structure of the timber — that ship masts were made from it. Resin, tar, charcoal and turpentine were extracted and produced.

Believe it or not, bread was even made from the inner bark of the tree, which was dried and pounded to flour. Extracts from needles are also used for medicinal purposes as a relief for the lungs and colds. I can only imagine that they work in a similar way to eucalyptus oil due to the strength of the resin oils.

Human impact

As with so many other species, humans have had quite an impact on the Scots pine’s natural range,

The Scots pine is incredibly resilient, growing high up in the mountains and clinging to the edges of rocks