Description: Deciduous, coniferous tree with straight, tapering trunk and thin, open, conical crown of whorled horizontal branches with pendulous foliage. Very old trees in open massively branched low, the biggest branches often turning abruptly upwards some 2m out from bole.

Height: 15-35m
Diameter: 0.5-1.5m

Shoots: Pale yellow or pale pinkish, often turning bright red, glabrous, grooved from leaf bases.

Needles: 2-3cm in tufts on short lateral shoots, but on vigorous young leader can be 6cm, spirally. Spur-leaves emerge bright green in Mar., darken by summer and golden by the end of Oct.. Narrow, parallel-sided to blunt tip, rich green above, variable grey-green below. Many young trees have silvery/glaucous foliage on long shoots.

Bark: Greenish grey-brown and smooth at first, soon fissured vertically; in forest may may be uniform grey for 70+ years; old single trees pink-brown with deep, broad, scaly ridges.

Flowers: Males on undersides of weak shoots or all round hanging shoots, open late March; whitish discs, often pale purple round edge, raised slightly in centre, become yellow as pollen shed after a week or so. Females near ends of strong shoots from age 5-10 years, 1-6 per shoot, more on old wood; rosy-red, pale green or white, erect, to 1cm on ½cm scaly stalk, 1st open early March; turn red-purple, then green.

Cones: Ripening first year into softly woody brown cones, tall-ovoid, bluntly rounded, or pointed ovoid-conic 2-4 × 2-3cm; scales rounded, tips turn slightly inwards, rarely slightly outwards. Falling complete, but many trees retain dead cones for ten years or more.

Habitat: A light-demanding pioneer species, forms pure sparse woods with luxuriant grassy undergrowth, or with Beech, Silver Fir and Norway Spruce at lower altitudes, Scots, Mtn. or Arolla Pines higher up; almost any terrain, provided it is well-drained. Withstand frosts, high winds; prefer continental climate. 800-2500m, lower further north.

Range: Throughout the Alps and Carpathians. Widely planted further west and north including Britain. Semi-naturalised in parts of UK.

Introduced to UK c1620, exact date uncertain. Growth very rapid: seedlings 30-40cm, 2-year transplants to 1.3m. If planted out, check one year, shoot 30-80cm, then up to 1.5m the next year. Growth starts May at 2cm/week, increasing to 10cm/week in June. A hiatus, then growth resumes August: vigorous trees 10cm/week to early October.

Information: Mitchell (1978), MacDonald (1984), Blamey & Grey-Wilson (1989)

Source: Weasdale Nurseries, Newbiggin-on-Lune, Cumbria.

Purchased: 1993.03.16, 25 forest grade transplants at 12-18"

Planted: 1993.04.03, Chrissy & Stewart, bottom strip, S end of European strip. Most of these are intended as "nurse trees" providing shelter and changing the composition of the soil. Eventually all except a small number of specimens will be felled, giving more light to the other trees which will by then be growing larger.

Progress: One died, several others lost leading shoot, but all grew new foliage, best to 75cm by August 1993. Over the years since then, all have grown to varying degrees, with only one loss due to rabbits and a failed tree shelter. The trees on the best sites have reached 3-4m by the end of the growing season in 1998. The tallest, at D5B, was 4.1m. Even those on the poorest, most shaded sites have made it to 1.5m, and thinning is likely to commence in a couple of years.

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