Post by UKarchaeology on Apr 3, 2016 20:44:11 GMT
Many Scots pines are thought to have been used to build Hadrian’s Wall (Alamy)
The discovery of a small cluster of Scots pine trees thought to be the remnants of a native forest that flourished in Britain after the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago has sparked a conservation effort by the Forestry Commission.
Tests on eight trees at Kielder Forest in Northumberland suggest they are genetically different from native pinewoods found elsewhere in Britain.
The discovery is potentially significant as Scots pine is not officially recognised as native to southern Scotland or England.
The trees are up to 200 years old and most likely descended from ancestral Scots pine trees that colonised Britain after glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago. For millennia, the Scots pinewoods have been in steady decline due to Britain’s increasingly wet climate and competition from other species. Large swathes of the trees are also thought to have succumbed to the Roman military, which required timber for scaffolding.
Full story: www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1684773.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2016_04_03