topping scotts pine

[openspaceman]

23 minutes ago, AJStrees said:

not to be too pedantic but it looks more like a black pine (Pinus Nigra) than Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris). Only saying...

 

5 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

I thought pinus pinaster myself.

 

Yes I saw that the first time and wondered because I thought Austrian or Corsican. Today  I stood under a pinaster I planted at my brother's 25 years ago and thought the green was a bit brighter there.

[AJStrees]

well I would say one would have to see the needles and cones to be fully sure but I find Pines the most difficult for differentiation. 

 

Can't really tell the colour in the photo, looks dark to me. 

[Mick Dempsey]

Mmm, you may be right. Not Scot’s though.

[openspaceman]

9 minutes ago, AJStrees said:

well I would say one would have to see the needles and cones to be fully sure

Yes but all three (two varieties of nigra so maybe 4) are two needle pines. The orange upper bark would show up as a scots but the pinaster is rarer and has bigger needles. My seed came from the progeny of the first generation at Kew. I felled the daughter tree in about 1986 and grew several seedlings, two of which I took to Devon along with 3 English walnuts the squirrels had planted in a friend's garden. The pinaster is the tallest tree for miles around in an exposed wet, windy spot 200 metres up on the edge of Exmoor, totally different from its Mediterranean home.

[Mick Dempsey]

Here’s one just up the road, presumably planted at the same time. Might help the ID.

[AJStrees]

Yes, funny you mention that because I had thought a mature pine we had was Scots too, but turns out from learning some of the different pines, Corsican or Black Pine is obviously different when you know. 

 

Along with a Douglas fir which is as tall as the pine, the bark is very different but assuming one doesn't know the difference, they could all as well just "be the same".  Not to state the bleeding obvious.