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Harmless🍽️ Edible💊 Medicinal

🌲 Scots pine

Pinus sylvestris · Pinaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🌲 Boreal🏔️ Mountains
🧠 To remember it“Pine: two needles per cluster, bark turning copper-red” — counting the needles instantly eliminates deadly yew.
Scots pine — Pinus sylvestris

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Conifer recognizable from afar by its typical orangey-copper bark in the upper third of the trunk, contrasting with the furrowed grey-brown base. Blue-green needles, paired in clusters (fascicles), slightly twisted, 4-7 cm long. Brown, conical-ovoid cones, drooping at maturity.

  1. orangey-copper bark in the upper part of the trunk
  2. needles paired in clusters, blue-green, twisted
  3. small (3-7 cm) brown cones, drooping
  4. crown often irregular and spreading in older trees
  5. abundant fragrant resin on damaged bark
Size15-35 m
FloweringMay (abundant yellow pollen)
Habitatlowland to mountain forests, sandy heaths, peat bogs, poor and acidic soils

⚠️ Not to be confused with

English Yew (never confuse with needle arrangement) (Taxus baccata)deadly for yew (cardiac toxins)

To tell them apart: yew has flat needles arranged in two comb-like rows rather than pairs in fascicles, scaly reddish-brown bark, and fleshy red arils instead of woody cones

🍽️ Eating it

Partsyoung shoots (candles) in spring, needles (herbal tea), pine nuts (small in Scots pine, rarely harvested)
SeasonApril-May (tender young shoots), year-round (needles, herbal tea)
Tasteresinous, citrusy, slightly pungent

Preparation : raw young shoots with a resinous-citrus flavor or as syrup; chopped needles infused for 10 min for a vitamin C-rich tea, never boil for a long time

0kcalEnergy
250mgVitamin C

approx, fresh needle tea, vitamin C content varies greatly depending on freshness; order of magnitude cited by several Nordic survival sources

💊 Healing with it

traditionally used in inhalations and chest rubs for respiratory ailments (needle essential oil), historical antiscorbutic (fresh needle vitamin C)

Level of evidence : traditional use — herbal medicine compilations (Fournier); historical use documented among polar explorers (Cartier, scurvy)

⚠️ pine essential oil is irritating when pure and must never be ingested as is; avoid direct inhalation if you have asthma

🪓 Other bushcraft uses

  • resin used as fire starter and waterproofing pitch for ropes and boat seams
  • resin-rich firewood, burns even when slightly damp but deposits creosote in chimneys
  • inner bark (cambium) edible in famine situations, dried and ground into emergency flour by the Sami people
Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.