Scots Pine

About Scots Pine in Alberta

Scots pine is an introduced Alberta pine that has become one of the province's most familiar planted conifers in farmsteads, shelterbelts, parks, campuses, and other settled landscapes. For Ancient Roots Alberta, it matters through older settlement-era and institutional plantings, especially mature trees whose open crown and orange upper bark make them distinctive markers of long-established prairie and urban landscape history.

Identification: Needles occur in bundles of two and are twisted, relatively short to medium in length, and often bluish green to gray green. The paired needle bundles and somewhat subdued blue-green cast help separate the species from denser dark pines and from spruces.

Alberta range and habitat: No wild Alberta occurrence was verified. Scots pine should be treated as planted only in Alberta, not as a native or naturalized forest pine.