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29 January 2014

S4M-08795 National Tree

The Deputy Presiding Officer (John Scott): The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-08795, in the name of Angus MacDonald, on a national tree for Scotland. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament welcomes the news that the Scots pine is to be designated the National Tree of Scotland; understands that this follows a public consultation by Forestry Commission Scotland, which ran from 3 September to 3 December 2013, to determine whether there is support for a national tree; acknowledges that this followed an approach to the Public Petitions Committee by a member of the public who suggested that the Scots pine be adopted as the national tree; recognises the importance of designating a national tree of Scotland as an important symbol of the country’s commitment to woodlands, biodiversity and reforestation, and understands that the Scots pine is the most widely distributed conifer in the world, with a natural range that stretches from West Scotland to the Okhotsk Sea in eastern Siberia, and from north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia to southern Spain.

17:09
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17:28

Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP): It is not often that my spouse participates in and seeks to influence parliamentary business, but today I received an urgent email from Sandra, with her vote on the national tree. I am delighted to say that she said that, for her, number 1 was the Scots pine, number 2 was the silver birch and number 3 was the rowan.

That may of course say a little about my wife. She is quite close to the silver birch as Cairn o’ Mohr, one of our local non-vine-based wineries, produces a wonderful silver birch wine that is lightly pĂ©tillant and—for those who have a vivid imagination—reminiscent of the finest French fizzy wine.

Of course, the rowans, of which we have six at the bottom of the garden, are the traditional Scots guard against the witches coming in, so I perfectly understand why Sandra had them on the list. I am delighted that she was able, from afar, by email, to support tonight’s motion.

Jamie McGrigor compared the Scots pine to the Sitka spruce. Where I live in Banffshire, I am surrounded on three sides by Sitka spruce, and it is almost a biodiversity no-go zone because the forest floor is so impacted by the lack of sunlight. Badgers and deer come through the trees and a fox lives in them, but comparatively, in plant life terms, there is not very much.

The Scots pine, by contrast, encourages huge diversity. Among the diversity that is associated with it—perhaps it is no accident—is Felis sylvestris grampia, or the Scots wildcat. The word “sylvestris”, meaning “forest”, is an important part of the name. I was slightly surprised that Jamie McGrigor, in referring to the wildcat, did not remind us of the MacGregor clan motto, which is “touch not the cat but with a glove”. That is a good thing to say about the Scots wildcat.

Of course, there are lots of other species that have “sylvestris” in their title as well. Besides Pinus sylvestris, which is the Scots pine, there is Anthricus sylvestris, or cow parsley, which can be found on the margins of our woodland; Malva sylvestris, or the common mallow, which again is found on the margins of forests—not in Scotland, perhaps, but elsewhere; Malus sylvestris, or the European crabapple, which is of course itself a tree; Angelica sylvestris, or wild Angelica, which lives in forest margins; Anemone sylvestris, or the snowdrop anemone, although that does not live much in forests; and finally Thymelicus sylvestris, which is a small skipper butterfly. Alas, the latter is not present in Scotland at all.

Diversity comes in many forms across the environment that we have in Europe. I would love to have the Scots pine in my garden but, growing as it does to 35m or 40m, I think that there is a remote chance of that. I am told that, in parts of Scandinavia, it can exceed 50m. It is a very substantial tree indeed and it can live for hundreds of years.

We may not have followed Canada and put the outline of a leaf as the main motif on our flag—in its case, it is the maple leaf—but I am delighted that we now have a national tree in Scotland and I very much welcome the fact that it is the Scots pine. Thank you, Presiding Officer.

The Deputy Presiding Officer: Thank you. That was a vintage performance.

17:32

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