Scientific Name
Pinus sylvestris
The scots pine native habitat is vast, ranging from Scotland toward the west but its main homes are the entirety of Scandinavia, northeastern Europe and an enormous area of Russia almost to the Pacific Ocean. Like Austrian pine, it is adaptable to a wide variety of harsh landscape conditions and is extremely cold hardy; it even grows north of the Arctic circle! This species can usually be quickly identified because of its flaky orange bark, especially in its upper reaches, and because of the twist in the roughly 2-inch-long needles that occur in bundles of two. The seed cones are on the short side among common pines in our region, averaging 2 inches in length. This tree species has nothing to do with the production of the alcoholic beverage scotch; rather, it’s named for Scotland, land of the Scots, hence the correct name for the tree.
Forming the typical conifer pyramid when young, as Scots pine matures the lower branches tend to die off, and it develops a picture worthy wide-spreading crown, with older trunks taking on a gray color. Scots pine is often grown on plantations, both as a Christmas tree and for paper and lumber products. Though Scots pine can grow well over 100 feet in native habitat, in Colorado its mature height is typically around 60 feet. Its usual life span is 150 to 300 years, though there is potential for more than 700.