Mystery pine seedlings- ID help!

Dermot

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Can anyone help ID these two needle pine seedlings? Collected last year from the tree in pics. The trees adjacent seem to be Wellingtonias. They're not native to Ireland here. They are located on an old estate property. It's possible the pines imported around the same time.
 

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penumbra

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They are a bit small for me to identify as the have no bark, branches or cones on them, but my guess would be Scots pine or possibly Austrian pine.
There are a lot of folks here that know their pines better than I do.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Pinus nigra seems to be logical.
I know they're commonly planted in England and Scotland. Large needles compared to sylvestris.
Scots pines tend to have some brown or orange on the bark higher up the tree, nigra is usually has the same color all over the trunk bark.
 

Cruiser

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Like penumbra mentioned, it would be helpful to see the cones and a closeup of the bark.

A lot of tree identification boils down to figuring out what a tree is not.
I don’t see large white buds like you’d see in Pinus nigra so we could probably cross that off the list.
The needles appear longer, are more densely arranged, and not quite the bluish hue with what you’d see in scots pine. However, there’s a lot of them where you are, so I wouldn’t cross it off the list yet..

It seems like a lot of those old estates were planted with non native trees so it’s hard to say what it is. More photos would be very helpful.
 

Shibui

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Planted in an estate garden it could be from anywhere in the world.
To ID pines you need to check bark color and pattern on the trunk, overall shape of the tree, buds -size and color, needle shape and size and how many in each cluster, cones - size, shape and arrangement of the scales.
Even with all that it can still be difficult as many species are closely related and look quite similar.
Some closer pics of buds, needles, cones and the trunk may help jog somebody's knowledge. Try to have something in the pics for scale so we can judge the size of things like buds, needles and cones.
 

Dermot

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I'll have to get some more photos over the Christmas and report back. Thanks for the pointers 👍
 

Potawatomi13

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Needles 2 in fascicle? How long needles? Cones very important.
 

PA_Penjing

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It's a fun game. I had an old pine seed sprout on me this year but I don't know if it's Scot's, virginia, JWP or huangshan pine yet. Time will tell us.
 

sorce

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Welcome to Crazy!

Sorce
 

Dermot

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Ok I finally got more pictures of the parent tree today. Is pinus nigra still the front runner?
 

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Cruiser

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Ok I finally got more pictures of the parent tree today. Is pinus nigra still the front runner?

I’ts looking like it. In your new set of photos a whitish bud is visible. There’s also an immature cone with a small prickle.

My other potential candidate was red pine (resinosa). Resinosa cones don’t have prickles and are typically smaller than what we see in the pics.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Everything says Nigra to me. Absolutely not a scots pine.
Judging from the age, and the fact that Ireland knows very few imported pines.. I'd say Nigra.
They were planted throughout Europe after every war or famine, because nigra produces a lot of OK quality wood in a small amount of time.
 

Cruiser

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Not so. Picture at top of page shows brown/reddish bud clearly;). Paired needles about 4-5" long and cone seems like JBP.
You got me.
Perhaps “whitish” was an overstatement. Yes, the bud is brown-red, but there is a whitish coating on it. The bud in that photo has more whitish fuzz than the bud seen in the first set of photos. That, to me, suggested a gradient and the possibility of even ‘whiter’ buds.

I agree that it could be a jbp. But the needles and cones are very similar between jbp and nigra. (Both of nigras average slightly longer). Just going off those two features alone would be unreliable.

The reason I lean towards nigra is that it seems unusual for such a large jbp to be there. Guy wires brings up a good point.
 

penumbra

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The reason I lean towards nigra is that it seems unusual for such a large jbp to be there. Guy wires brings up a good point.
I agree. That was the first thing that came to my mind. I just waited for others to weigh in.
 

Dermot

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I'm going with pinus nigra on this one. Thanks for all the help 👍
 
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