England's highest Christmas tree?

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 stevesmith 12 May 2016
Here's a tiny Christmas tree growing at an altitude of 771m near Wind Gap on Pillar - is it England's highest Christmas tree? Any offers?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1jf1rw2brzvp144/ChristmasTree.JPG?dl=0
 marsbar 12 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith:

I hope you will go back in December with decorations
llechwedd 13 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith:

Impressive . Looks like Sitka.
Incidentally, in Southern Alaska they'll grow from sea level right up to a full 3000' alt.
 Doug 13 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith:

there used to be at least one pine above Glen Feshie at close to a 1000m, but about 25cm high in the lee of large rocks etc
 mike123 13 May 2016
In reply to marsbar:
A few years ago somebody decorated a tree at the end of the long slog up on the north loop at whinlatter . Very amusing . I came up with the idea of putting some solar powered lights and a speaker playing jingle bells on it , attached to a motion sensor , but like so many things quickly forgot about it once we got to the pub. The idea did however morph into putting a similar but less " festive" contraption deep in the woods on the north loop for Halloween . After a couple more pints we decided that the possibility of giving somebody a very nasty turn was perhaps too great.
 Billhook 13 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith:

The common 'Christmas' tree is Norway Spruce. As pointed out this one is likely to be a Sitka spruce which is too prickly to be normally sold as a 'Christmas |Tree'

OP stevesmith 14 May 2016
In reply to Dave Perry:

Good botanical point, Dave. But it's still pretty high up.
 felt 14 May 2016
In reply to Dave Perry:

Not any more. Because of the Norway's poor performance in centally heated houses – needledrop – your default go to tree these days is the pricier Nordmann fir. A shame in some ways as for me, Clive, the smell of Christmas is always associated with the Norway.
 malk 14 May 2016
In reply to Doug:

> there used to be at least one pine above Glen Feshie at close to a 1000m, but about 25cm high in the lee of large rocks etc

some pines seen at around 1200m on the Caingorm/Macdui plateau, but don't last long (maybe they do now?)
http://www.edwardboyle.com/blog/?p=1393

i like the idea of introducing something like Pinus Mugo to our high mountains- what do you think?

nice find Steve
OP stevesmith 15 May 2016
In reply to malk:

Excellent. Is that a Scots pine? I wouldn't favour introducing P. mugo, as it's not a native.

A few years ago I was on a chamois conservation project in the Low Tatra, Slovakia. On our induction talk, we were warned to take care when approaching stands of dwarf pine, presumably P. mugo, because brown bears like to hang out there. They sometimes use the springy little trees like sun-loungers. You don't want to startle a brown bear. And early one morning, I did see a cub, but luckily not an adult.

 todness 18 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith: there's a sitka on the green traverse of eagle front - only about 550M - it seems very happy there, which I wasn't.

Eagle Crag (Buttermere)
 felt 18 May 2016
In reply to todness:

Ennerdale's quite the parent, isn't it?
 GrahamUney 18 May 2016
In reply to stevesmith:

There are a couple of small conifers growing on Pillar Rock, which are probably at around the 770m mark too.
In reply to GrahamUney:

There's a few reasonably large ones too - at least the bigger sort of Christmas tree sized. There's one that forms a good belay on Great Chimney just before it joins the final part of Slab and Notch and another that was big enough to be a solid runner on a winter ascent of Harlequin Chimneys, plus a bigger one that formed a belay at the end of pitch 4 (in Shamrock Gully). A friend of mine has been given the job of removing as many as he can from Hind Cove (home to many rare plants) but I'm not sure his remit extends to Pillar Cove.

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