Pinus sylvestris

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Pinus sylvestris, PISY, Scotch Pine is the most important specie beside Quercus robur to dendrochronology in northen europe. A lot of chronologies are available. Pine wood is very frequently used in buildings and other constructions, which means that there is a lot of material for a dendrochronologist to work with. In for instance northen Scandinavia it use to be very well preserved in constructions. The oldest are from 12'th and 13'th century in Norway and Sweden. In coast near areas and on lower latitudes and altitudes the sapwood often is affected by insects according to humidity, and difficult to core. Pine (high) stumps may sometimes persist for hundreds of years in the forest, due to high resin content. Pine wood will also persist very well in wet conditions in lakes and bogs. It is relatively easy to collect cores from with an increment borer both from living pine trees and from old logs in a construction.

Characteristics of Pinus sylvestris wood

Typical for wood from Pinus (sylvestris and other species) is:

  • A relatively distinct change from early wood to late wood in most of the rings.
  • Often a lot of white "dots" in the latewood.
  • The pitch use to be more "star shaped" than in Picea
  • Often a reddish color on the heart wood in contrast to an more yellow (or blue or green according to affection) sap wood. But there are big variations from sample to sample and sometimes the border between sap wood and heart wood is almost invisible.
  • Sometimes blue stain affects the sapewood.
  • In microscope a thin wet preparation will show a typical pattern, different from other groups of conifers.

Observed problems according to measuring and crossdating PISY samples

Extremely thin or absent rings

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Extremely thin and absent rings in a PISY sample. The original width of the section is 5.5 mm. (Youngest rings to the left)

External links