Pinus sylvestris
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Scots pine
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Gymnosperms
Flower colours
No flowers
Detailed description
Medium sized tree reaching about 35 m. Needles are stout 2.5–7 cm × 1–1.5 mm, in bunches of 2, grey-green to blue-green in colour, and twisted. New shoots are light yellow to light brown. Mature female cones are pendent 3–6 × 1.5–3 cm, light brownish grey.
Similar taxa
Short needles held in pairs, foliage has silvery appearance. Small cones without spikes, shed annually. Similar to P. mugo and P. uncinata but in P. sylvestris the cones are held on short stalks.
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Year naturalised
1919
Origin
Europe, W. and N. Asia
Reason for introduction
Forestry
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial; seed is wind dispersed.
Other information
Extra information
The National Wilding Conifer Control Programme team at Biosecurity New Zealand, a branch of Ministry for Primary Industries, has produced this wilding conifer quick ID guide.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
PINSYL