Corsican pinePavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0
Corsican pine
Scots pineGail A Baker, CC BY 4.0
Scots pine
Lookalikes

Corsican pine or Scots pine?

Both are two-needle pines of plantation, heath and sandy ground.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the needle length. Corsican pine: 12 to 18 cm, slender and soft. Scots pine: 5 to 7 cm, fairly thick. No leaves on the tree? Check the trunk up to the crown.

At a glance

Look atCorsican pineScots pine
Needle length12 to 18 cm, slender and soft5 to 7 cm, fairly thick
Trunk up to the crownGreyish mauve, big plates split by wide cracksGreyish brown below, orange and papery above

Two ways to tell them apart

Needle lengthLeaves
Corsican pine: needle length
Corsican pine12 to 18 cm, slender and soft
Scots pine: needle length
Scots pine5 to 7 cm, fairly thick
Trunk up to the crownBark
Corsican pine: trunk up to the crownnaturalist charlie, CC BY 4.0
Corsican pineGreyish mauve, big plates split by wide cracks
Scots pine: trunk up to the crown
Scots pineGreyish brown below, orange and papery above
Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

Corsican pine

Pinus nigra subsp. laricio

Corsican pine is planted in forests for its timber. Its trunk is straight and clean, often with no fork until far up the tree. The needles come in pairs, 12 to 18 cm long and twisted.

How to identify Corsican pine →

Scots pine

Pinus sylvestris

The trunk is greyish brown and plated low down, turning thin, papery and orange towards the top. The needles come in short, twisted pairs.

How to identify Scots pine →

Their other lookalikes

Scots pineNorway spruceScots pine or Norway spruce?Quickest check: how the needles are set
In the app

See them side by side in Treely

  • Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
  • Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
  • A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
  • The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them
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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: Pavel Kacl (CC BY 4.0), Gail A Baker (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), naturalist charlie (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.