Be worth revisiting to get some more pics when the light is better and they don't have that nasty white gunk all over them ;-)

Close-up pics of the foliage and cones, too.

Resin

The newer plantings have the same habit as shore pine.

Thanks for the pics! Last one is a beauty.

Ha ha Resin, yes I'm jumping the gun calling them mugos when they are just atmospheric pictures.

Barring any unforseeable I should be back there on a clear day before long.

Thanks for the input bboy, I'll get some pictures of those for analysis too.

Thanks Will, it'll be funny seeing it knowing you're a fan from very afar.

Just had a look round Rassau Industrial Estate on google street view, and I'm finding mainly Pinus contorta and a scattering of P. sylvestris, but no P. mugo. Telling pines apart when they're covered in snow isn't easy!

Resin

P. contorta (left & centre) and P. sylvestris (right):
(edit to add lat. & long., as they're not legible on the downsized pic here: 51.8002 N, 3.2407 W)

This post was edited by pineresin on Mon, Jan 21, 13 at 10:36

Some P. contorta natural regeneration on vacant plots:

Even found your globe tree! The lat. & long. on the pic here is its exact position:

P. mugo types here don't have such long leaders.

Mature mugos are still a thing of some mystery to me as they are very rare in England. Wales has much more of a pine range to mature ages so this is where I assumed they simply had ample time to grow tall. The leaders and side growth are often heavy crowns of branches sometimes short and distincively very dense.

Great work Resin, Contorta would be wonderful and unusual here, I'll get those close ups to let you guys make a full analysis. Could the 'Rassau Globe' be Contorta? I'll get some interior pics of the trunk and branch array.

Yep, odd, but true - particularly the tree-size P. mugo subsp. uncinata is distinctly rare, both as mature specimens, and in nursery availability.

P. contorta (subsp. contorta) is abundant in upland Britain, it is the second-most widely planted tree in forestry plantations (after Picea sitchensis), and very widely used in shelterbelts, etc., as here.

Yep, 'Rassau Globe' is P. contorta.

Resin

Eventually found one small clump of P. mugo, but they're only just over a metre tall, shrubby P. mugo subsp. mugo, not subsp. uncinata. More P. contorta over at the left edge. 51.80566 N, 3.23020 W.

Resin

Well now I have my eye somewhat better in for the Contortas thanks to your pics I have to say that they likely account for almost all the non sylvestris pines on the estate as far as I've seen.

I'll get some close ups and cone pics for final conclusion. I'll also have a good read up on this great species which hadn't be on my radar much past the celebrated cultivars.

Is the globe a possibly distinct variant then? It's the inevitable hopeful question lol. I ask because if it were caused by damage it surely wouldn't retain such a regular globose shape down the years especially as it's contemporaries are all tall trees now. I'm ready to be disabused...

I do see stands of 6-8' 'mugo types' in various factory areas in Wales and the odd larger regular cone shaped tree. I'll start photographing them so we can work out the variety of plantings.