Ponderosa vs Scots

During our first walk in the woods here in Uppsala, I noticed the predominant pine species looks very much like our native Ponderosa pines on the dry side of the Cascades. After asking some locals what kind of tree we were looking at ("Pine" they responded, not unreasonably), and doing some online research, I came to the conclusion that this is actually the Scots pine. Comparing the bark of the two species, you can see how similar they are:

Ponderosa Pine near Winthrop, WA

Scots Pine in Uppsala

The color is off a bit due to the different exposures but you can see the similarity.

The Scots Pine has a huge range, growing everywhere from north and eastern Europe all the way to eastern Siberia. The Ponderosa, by contrast, is native mainly to the western United States. I think all this is pretty cool but then, since taking the Mountaineers Naturalist class, I have become quite the tree nerd.

On our walk in the woods yesterday, we were struck by all the bird songs we were hearing and took this video as a souvenir.  I hope it actually plays!

On a different walk, we found the Old Observatory at Uppsala University built in 1853.

The Observatory

The Observatory in its glory days

Nowadays, the observatory building apparently houses offices for the law faculty. Times change.