Forest pine

Name: Forest pine

FOREST PINE — 

Pinus silvestris L.

The pine family is Pinaceae

 

What does it look like? Coniferous evergreen tree 20-40 m tall. Its crown is rounded. The bark is light, red-brown, peels off in thin layers. The leaves are placed (glice — chatina) by 2 on the tops of shortened shoots, 5-7 cm long, dark green, with noticeable blue-white stripes and a jagged edge. The plant is monoecious. Greenish-yellow microstrobils (male cones) are formed at the base of young long shoots in the axils of covering leaves. Seed (female) cones are single or 2-3 on legs bent downwards, oval-conical, reddish. Ripe cones are matte, solid, the shields of the scales are almost rhombic with 4-6 facets. The seed is black with a wing that is three times longer than the seed. Blooms in June.

Where does it grow? In Polissia, in the northern and southern parts of the Forest Steppe and the northern part of the Steppe, on sandy soils, the rivers Tyasmin, Rosa, Psla, Vorskla, Siversky Dinets, Oskol, Aydar, Krasnaya, Samara, mainly on sandy and sandy soils. From the nuts of the European cedar pine (Pinus cembra L.), islands of which can be found in Gorgany, fragrant oil (250 g from 1 kg) and tasty and nutritious cedar milk are made.

What and when are collected? Shoots and pitch (resin), throughout the summer (buds and shoots are best collected in February – March). Sprouts of dwarf pine (Pinus montana Mill) are especially valued. (Pinus mugo Turra).

When is it used? With scurvy, as a vitamin drink: from freshly collected pine branches, the sap is stripped, washed with cold water and cut into slices. Pour 2.25 glasses of cold water into 4 glasses of such a mixture, add 2 teaspoons of diluted hydrochloric acid to it and put it in a dark place for 2-3 days; then strain and drink 1 glass a day.

Due to the fact that the buds and acorns contain volatile oil, vitamins B 2 , K and carotene, flavonoids, resins, tannins, vitamin C, mineral salts, phytoncides, etc., decoction, steam and infusion of pine buds are used as an expectorant, anti-putrefactive, disinfectant, choleretic and diuretic (turpentine, which contains terpenes — pinene, limonene, borneol, bornyl acetate, and others, the bitter substance pinipicrin works).

 

It is used as a decoction. Boil 30 g of buds in 1 liter of water for 5-7 minutes, and drink the decoction 3 times a day; with diseases of the upper respiratory tract, chronic bronchitis, with stones and sand in the kidneys and bladder, gout.

In the form of tea, it is prepared like this. Boil 1 tablespoon of a mixture (equally) of pine buds, althea flowers and wild flowers for a minute in 2 glasses of water, infuse for 10 minutes, strain and drink half a glass every 3 hours.

Infusion of cones is drunk during excessive menstruation. A means of achieving longevity is considered to be the pollen poured from the yellow microstrobils of pine collected during flowering and dried in the sun . Take 4 g of pollen (1 teaspoon) 2-3 times a day, before meals. This pollen, boiled with milk, with the addition of honey and butter, is also used for pulmonary tuberculosis.

In case of rickets, hernia, gout, sweating of the feet and for the treatment of nervous excitement, take 3 full handfuls of shoots or brambles per 5 liters of water and boil them for 3 hours. The decoction is added to a full bath. Baths are repeated three times a week (see European Spruce). Tar obtained as a result of dry distillation of pine (or spruce) trunks and branches is used to treat eczema, scaly lichen, and scabies — it has a disinfecting, antimicrobial, and local irritant effect.

And also pay attention to the article Common pine

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