Where I live in Norway, and in Norway in general, the Pinus Sylvestris, Scots Pine, Pine, or in Norwegian «Furu», in Dutch: Grove Den, this tree is covering the landscapes, the mountains, and the valleys with its wonderful energizing green color, and its exquisite relaxing and uplifting smell. It is green (all pines are) during the entire year, strong and intense. It gives a really heartwarming impression for all senses in each season. In winter the white creates a wonderful contrast with a therefore even more intense present color green in the needles of the Pine. The needles are long, so much longer than the needles of the for Christmas more popular so called Norway Spruce: Picea abies.
Photo: Illustration of the Pinus Sylvestris
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Use -The Pine is beloved for all its products, from wood for building the traditional Norwegian houses and furniture, to firewood, products like paper, and matches. It is also used because of its lovely relaxing and uplifting smell, available via essential oils, used in aroma therapy for their health benefits, and also as a remedy in the products of Dr. Edward Bach. The needles are used for making tea. Pine buds are also very healthy, not only for animals (squirrel) and birds, but also for human beings.
Photo: the resin of a Pine
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The resin contains substances that are so complex to explain in a short post, and need so much professional study to name them, understand them and explain them, that I keep myself to just a short summary about uses: it is well known as a very important basic in the creation of oil paint, and in the form of rosin it is applied to the bows of musical string instruments because of its ability to add friction to the hair to increase sound quality. Rosin, typically applied through a loose-woven bag, is used by baseball pitchers on the pitching hand for a better grip on the ball. Ballet dancers, as well as boxers in the old days, may apply crushed resin to their shoes to increase grip on a slippery floor. It is also in use in the cosmetics industry.
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Sacred Earth – When searching for information about the Pinus sylvestris I found lots of websites with info, also beautiful videos, photos, and paintings. One of the most excellent and most complete articles about the Pinus Sylvestris was published on the website of «Sacred Earth – Ethnobotany and Ecotravel». Name of the article: “Pine”. Author: Kat Morgenstern. I can not create a more complete post myself and therefore I would like to recommend the article, to learn more about this wonderful gift from nature, that is there to serve us, not least for producing our oxygen. Click here.
Pinus Sylvestris, everywhere in the forests where I live. Together with sheep an almost perfect Christmas Landscape.
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Global warming and its disastrous effects on the Pinus Sylvestris – Michael Pellegatti (from Wild Visions): «With global warming evident in many places around the world, the forests of North America are undergoing huge changes. The pine beetle and pine trees have co-evolved together and until the past 2-3 decades, the numbers of beetles have been kept in check by very cold winters that would kill the beetles, thus limiting their lifespan and ability to reproduce. However, with warmer temperatures during the winters, the beetles are surviving in astounding numbers and are killing the forests of the western US and Canada. To date millions of acres of forests and billions of trees are dead and there is no end in sight. Some estimates predict that by 2013, 80% of the North American forests could be gone. In addition, we are losing forests that otherwise provide a carbon sink for our production of greenhouse gases, and as the trees die, they emit more Carbon Dioxide back into the atmosphere. Nothing, except very cold winter weather, will stop the beetles. One of them is the Pine Beetle.» The embedding options are disabled on youtube, the embedding codes on Vimeo are not supported by LinkedIn, but you can watch the video here.
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The environment of the Pine – The Pinus Sylvestrus, the Scots Pine is the backbone of the forest community, home to its most iconic animals.
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The Pine forests around me in Norway – To get an idea how a Norwegian Pine forest looks like, when walking through it I have added one of my videos. The forest is incredible rich in vegetation! A very nice surprise was the meeting with some sheep that were walking around there, freely. An animal that feels very much at home here is the Norwegian moose: the Elg, mostly in winter. In the other seasons it lives in higher areas. Other species are: the Deer, the Red Fox or Rødrev, theNorway lemming, and since a short time also the Norwegian but not here (in these areas) belonging Jerv (Norwegian name for Wolverine or Skunk Bear). Birds:Magpie, Duck, White Wagtail, the Great Tit, several birds of prey (did not see them here), and some other that I did not find a name for already. They are different from the birds that I know from the Netherlands.
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Sources and additional information
- Wiki commons: Illustration Pinus
- Wiki: Scots Pine (Pinus Sylvestris)
- Wiki: Furu
- National Christmas Tree Association: Norway Spruce
- Sacred Earth: Article by Kat Morgenstern ~ Pine
- Sacred Earth: Kat Morgenstern
- Dr. Edward Bach: Pine
- Essential oil: Pine
- Health Benefits of Pine Essential Oil.
- Health: The Healing Power of Pine
- Dave’s Garden: Pine needle tea
- Video: Death Of A Forest – Pine Beetles kill millions of trees in US & Canada
- Video: The Red Squirrel and The Scots Pine
- Videos: Wild Vision
- Video with Classical Music: The Pines of Rome (Respighi) (live concert)
The original post was published on December 25, 2014
