Domed tree to c. 25 m or so tall. Bark fissured and grey with distinctive reddish colouration in upper trunk of mature trees. Branches often low. Buds c. 1 cm long, cylindric to ovoid, sometimes crusted with white resin. Young shoots green becoming yellowish to pale brown. Leaves in 2's, 3-6 cm long, flexible and twisted, bluish to grey-green; sheaths to 1 cm long, persistent. Cones solitary or in pairs, 2.5-5 cm long, often dense in the upper canopy, conical, deciduous, tip often bent; stalk (when present), short and bent down; scales relatively thin and flexible with a minute prickle. Seeds c. 7 mm long with wing 1.5-2 cm long.
Eurasia. Naturalised on the North and South islands of New Zealand.
Red upper trunk; leaves wavy blue, twisted.
SA: Mt Gambier (Bot. Gds). NSW: Batlow (Pilot Hill Arboretum); Mt Tomah (Bot. Gds); Sydney (Royal Bot. Gds). ACT: Prime Minister's Lodge (Ptd 6.11.1954 by Sir Robert Menzies. Grown from seed collected on Prime Ministerial visit to Scotland). VIC: Balwyn (Beckett Park, 2 trees); Creswick (Dept Conservation and Natural Resources, E of Nursery Grounds ptd. c. 1910; small grove in Forestry School grounds, young in 1990); Dandenongs ('Pirianda'); Melbourne (Royal Bot. Gds Eastern Lawn); Mt Beauty (Clover Arboretum); Taradale (near railway viaduct); Traralgon (Cemetery, 3 trees part of old S boundary). TAS: Hagley (St Mary's Church - 2 fine trees).
Source: (1995). Pinaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Pinus sylvestris 'Albyns Prostrate'
Prostrate. Selected from seedlings grown at Albyn Nursery, Newark, Ohio, USA.
Leaves and cones silvery. Originating from UK c. 1920's.
Slow growing to form a medium sized tree turning yellow in winter. Old cultivar from UK.
Pinus sylvestris 'Doone Valley'
Upright bush with asymetrical form. Name of property of J.W. Archer who, with R.S. Corley, selected it from a witches broom of a tree growing near Great Pond, Frensham, Surrey, UK, in 1958; given to Hilliers Nursery and released in 1961.
Columnar with erect branches. Old cultivar from UK.
Pinus sylvestris 'Viridis Compacta'
Dwarf, conical, open, branchlets greenish yellow and sometimes twisted. Origin possibly UK.
Dwarf, bluish foliage, mound-shaped but eventually becoming quite large. Old English cultivar. Original tree is at Knap Hill Nsy, Woking, Surrey, UK.