Erika Leaman on Pinus sylvestris

[Erika_Leaman]

Around January 2025 I collected 4 batches of P. sylvestris seeds from 3 different sources.

• 2 batches harvested from trees growing by the Moray Firth. I'll refer to them as CH1 & CH2

• 1 harvested from an area of ancient caledonian pinewoods: CAL*

• 1 bought from a commercial seed source online, I presume to be of French provenance used for timber production: COM

*disclaimer: I purchased these seeds from a company who are proppergating native species in Scotland. I believe their collection to be ethical and that money raised goes back into maintaining caledonian pine woods.

As a long term project, I want to track morphological characteristics and growth habits between sources. Ideally I would have a better understanding of the provenance of the seed sources, or, focus on different caledonian pine wood sites. As each remaining site show a variety of characteristics blah blah blah....
... I won't get too much into that.
Either way, as a citizen. My experiments and observations can only be as such.

CH1 & CH2, although collected from a tree in scotland, i do not believe these to be of caledonian origin.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

"What is this caledonian origin she is ranting about..."

Well everyone knows that scots pine is native to Scotland. Infact its native to many place across the northern hemisphere...
But 10,000 years ago a glacial sheet retreated from the British Island. With it's retreat, plant life followed, pioneering species such as betula and pinus sylvestris occupied the land from the south migrating northward.
As climate changed and angiosperms flourished in a wetter habitat the pines were pushed northward to more isolated regions.

Isolation causes speciation, though in these 10,000 years, not enough distinct change has occurred to be considered a new species or subspecies, but where is the line drawn?

There's argument on where this line is drawn of course. Some say all caledonian scots pine are simply the subspecies P. sylvestris var. scotia, others (Stephen and Carlisle) would argue that each remaining caledonian pinewood site is genetically distinct. (See lumpers and splitters)

 

[Erika_Leaman]

I just realised I'm hurtling away from the original topic of my seedlings. So instead of going back on topic.... i've changed the topic.

This is now a master thread for my appreciation, cultivation, obsession and self guided education/study of Pinus sylvestris.
(And will be continued after a small break)

 

[Erika_Leaman]

These remaining 84 sites of caledonian scots pine are direct descendants of scot pine which originally populated the UK 10,000 years ago and have adapted to the various habitats and climates to where they are located.

All other scots pine in the UK are foresty and landscape imports and non-native.

And though as a conservationist I favor native trees and environments, and have bias towards these native caledonian pinewoods. Despite this I am enthusiastic towards all scots pine.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

Back to my seedlings.

I planted CH1 in febuary 2025. Substrate of kaizen #3 in a teracotta pot. Left on my windowsill to germinate.

My plan, to compair the effects of an extended growing period to CH2 which will be planted a few months later in the spring. Both at this time to be put outside.

i suffered from some damping off but had generally decent germination rates.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

My observations led to no drastic differences in growth rate.

So yesterday I pulled the CH1 seedlings out of their pot and up potted them




I collected the smaller less developed seedlings into bunches and wired them together


Much of these seedlings have lower buds, if not branching already, which is an improvement of the miscellaneous pine seeds I germinated 2024.

 

[Glaucus]

Do you think or know that genetics of Pinus sylvestris planted for lumber is different from the wild species? Every forest here in the Netherlands is artificial. There's a lot of Scot's pine. But more Douglas, obviously.
I know that with breeding for wood volume, a lot can be achieved in about 50 to 100 years. But no idea if that was actually done. And basically all Scot's pine here may be from such a breeding project.
This is probably the video on this topic I watched years ago:

(or this one)

 

[Erika_Leaman]

I suspect you are right, seed will be selected from trees which show faster, straighter growth. And then from those germinated seeds will be collected again etc. But I'm no expert on the matter (nor any matter)

So I guess genetically those trees selectively bred will differ from those naturally grown, but to what extent. Probably not so much.
It will be the same with the non native Scots pine in the rest of the UK.
My long answer is that I don't know, and I'm very interested to find out more about selective breeding, and it's processes.

Thanks for the videos and food for thought!

 

[Erika_Leaman]

April 10th 2025

COM seedlings ermerging, from my notes taken, it took a fortnight between planting and germination.

On the same date
CALE seedlings upfront and CH2 seedlings at the back.

They all germinated in roughly the same amount of time.
COM seedlings had a very high germination rate. CH2 and CH1 simular rates between indoors and outdoors, but, damping off of CH1 resulted in a lower yield
CALE have significantly lower germination rates. I believe only 8 germinated out of 50.

31st July 2025

COM up front
CH 2 back right
CALE back left.
You can see COM seem to be in the lead, CALE much slower. CH2 has caught up with CH1 by this point.

CH1, the lower branching can be seen.

8th October 2025


Needles hardened and buds developed, its probably obvious at this point which are which.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

One of the reasons I wanted to start a thread like this is share my documentation of Pinus sylvestris in the landscape, hopefully to influence and inspire.
I'll start with my most recent trip.

3rd January 2026.

My better half and I enjoy beachcombing, they collect pottery shards, I search for suiseki, we both enjoy litter picking. We live on a coast line and have explored much of it. So we traveled further afield on this day.
The tide was in, but I spotted some scots pine in the dunes.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

In the new year of 2025, I took myself on a short hike to explore a hill where grows Sequioadendron giganteum planted in the 1860's.
I wrote about it here.

But before finding the Giant sequioas I came across a handful of wind battered Pinus sylvestris, perched upon the edge of a quarry face.

In hindsight these photos arnt so great, but the winds up there were strong and bitter, I had much more of the woodland to explore, and I was suffering a injury to my ribs which had me off work for 2 months.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

Now I'm not the greatest fan of root over rock forms in bonsai, they more often than not seem somewhat contrived to me. But when done well I can really appreciate it.

This environment inspires me to create more naturalistic root and rock variants - I feel often in bonsai we use one large rock with the roots draped over. Almost forming a tanuki.

 

[Michael P]

One could not hope for a better example of windswept than photo 11!

 

[Erika_Leaman]

One could not hope for a better example of windswept than photo 11!

I was amazed when I found it. I really have to go back there soon.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

My other half wasn't convinced that I hadn't secretly planned a tree spotting trip instead of a beach trip.

 

[Cruiser]

One of the reasons I wanted to start a thread like this is share my documentation of Pinus sylvestris in the landscape, hopefully to influence and inspire.
I'll start with my most recent trip.

3rd January 2026.

My better half and I enjoy beachcombing, they collect pottery shards, I search for suiseki, we both enjoy litter picking. We live on a coast line and have explored much of it. So we traveled further afield on this day.
The tide was in, but I spotted some scots pine in the dunes.

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These are awesome.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

@Cruiser I'll have to return in with only my own time to waste and take better photos to document their form thoroughly

 

[Cruiser]

@Cruiser I'll have to return in with only my own time to waste and take better photos to document their form thoroughly

Well worth the time. A few even look fun to climb.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

I've received an email today containing the scans of negatives from 8 rolls of film I've taken on my excursions since the latter half of last year. I'm quite excited to share but I'll be patient as i plan to write articles/travel journals for them.

But for the mean time, here are two somewhat stand alone photos I took whilst doing conservation work on the south west

Remnants of a pinus sylvestris on the bog.
If you follow my thread Collecting P. sylvestris from the mòine àrdaich, this is where i collected bog pine #4



On the second day our work was to remove beech (Fagus sylvatica) from an oak/hazel temperate rain forest. There were a few Elder pinus sylvestris, though in decline.

I took more photos with my phone camera.


Big hollow running through the trunk.





This was an interesting scots pine I really wish I could have explored more. It had large sections of witches brooms. And the erect branch from the left hand side made this a very ugly tree. But beautiful none the less.

 

[Erika_Leaman]

Well worth the time. A few even look fun to climb.

Honestly don't think I should of hopped the fence, let alone climb them, the windswept one looks so inviting though...


...maybe next time.