A virgin stand of longleaf pine in the East Texas Piney Woods region, 1908 (Earley 2004) [Stephen F. Austin University].

Longleaf-wiregrass savanna in Scotland County, North Carolina. This represents the sandy soil/ xeric/ high-fire-frequency extreme attained by the species [C.J. Earle, 2004.10.23].

Mature tree, Weymouth Woods, NC. This is a much denser stand than shown above; it has received regular prescriptive burns since about 1984. Note the burned snag [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

Seedlings and saplings regenerating in a canopy gap in a forest managed by prescriptive burning. Weymouth Woods, NC [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

A seedling in the 'grass' stage, 25 cm tall. Weymouth Woods, NC [C.J. Earle, 1999.03].

The "foliar unit" is a ball of needles about 60 cm diameter on the end of each branchlet [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

Seed cone, which has matured and shed all its seed [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

Ripe pollen cones; rosette is about 12 cm across [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

Detail of ripe pollen cones [C.J. Earle, 2006.03].

The range of longleaf pine, redrawn from Burns & Honkala (1990). Basemap from www.expediamaps.com

Tree scarred for turpentine production. Bark was trimmed annually and sap collected and distilled to produce turpentine and pine tar. Exposed wood was charred during ground fires reinstated as a conservation practice, after turpentine production ceased. Weymouth Woods, NC [C.J. Earle, 1991.12].

Pinus palustris

Miller 1768

Common Names

Longleaf pine, longleaf yellow pine, southern yellow pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus australis F. Michaux (Kral 1993).

Description

"Trees to 47 m; trunk to 1.2 m diam., straight; crown rounded. Bark orange-brown, with coarse, rectangular, scaly plates. Branches spreading-descending, upcurved at tips; twigs stout (to 2 cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough. Buds ovoid, silvery white, 3-4 cm; scales narrow, margins fringed. Leaves (2)-3 per fascicle, spreading-recurved, persisting 2 years, 20-45 cm x ca. 1.5 mm, slightly twisted, lustrous yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; sheath 2-2.5(3) cm, base persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, 30-80 mm, purplish. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, quickly shedding seeds and falling, solitary or paired toward branchlet tips, symmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid-cylindric when open, 15-25 cm, dull brown, sessile (rarely short-stalked); apophyses dull, slightly thickened, slightly raised, nearly rhombic, strongly cross-keeled; umbo central, broadly triangular, with short, stiff, reflexed prickle. Seeds truncate-obovoid; body ca. 10 mm, pale brown, mottled darker; wing 30-40 mm. 2n=24" (Kral 1993).

Range

USA: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and E Texas at 0-700 m elevation on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. Typical habitat dry sandy uplands, sandhills, and flatwoods (Kral 1993). See also Thompson et al. (1999). It formerly occupied a large fraction of this range, but logging, fire suppression and conversion to other, more easily-managed species (mostly native pines such as P. elliottii and P. taeda) have greatly reduced its range and impaired ecological function in much of the remaining range, so that now its range is heavily fragmented and there are few places where it can be seen in anything like a pristine state. A 2004 inventory found only 5095 ha of surviving old-growth longleaf pine forest (Varner and Kush 2004). P. palustris is most commonly found in fairly pure stands with an understory dominated by Aristida stricta (wiregrass), and this longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem supports a wide variety of plants and animals that, without this ecosystem, are at high risk of extinction.

Big Tree

Diameter 93 cm, height 34 m, crown spread 15 m, located in Covington County, MS; also, diameter 74 cm, height 41 m, crown spread 12 m, located in Wilkinson County, MS (See also American Forests 2000).

Oldest

In the summer of 2007, a tree at the Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines, North Carolina yielded a 459-year tree-ring core. The tree was found by Jason Ortegren and Paul Knapp of the University of North Carolina (Greensboro), who were developing tree-ring material for paleoclimatic reconstruction (Wireback 2007). It is reasonable to suppose that this still-living tree is at least 460 years old.

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

It is a valued species for lumber and pulpwood and was once important for naval stores (e.g., turpentine, pine oil, tar, pitch) (Kral 1993).

Observations

Personally, I have seen it in the Sand Hills district of North Carolina, an area that once supported a flourishing turpentine industry based on the pines. The Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in the town of Southern Pines provides an excellent place to see an old-growth longleaf stand, managed for frequent fire and inhabited by red-cockaded woodpeckers. Other areas managed with a natural fire regime, and which thus retain many characteristic features of longleaf-wiregrass ecosystems, include stands in the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge and the Tall Timbers Research Station. Some good field trips are described by Hyre and Hartley (2000). Varner and Kush (2004), which is available online, contains a reasonably current inventory with descriptions of known remaining old-growth stands of longleaf pine.

Remarks

Pinus palustris is adapted to frequent low intensity fire. Relevant adaptations include:

a deep taproot and a definite grass stage, which permit seedlings to lose foliage and yet survive low intensity fires (see the "Remarks" section HERE for details on "grass stage" growth);
profuse production and shedding of needles and ready shedding of lower limbs, which provide a rapid accumulation of fine fuels, sufficient to support ground fires at frequencies as often as 3 years;
an extremely flammable heartwood and sapwood shielded by a relatively fire-resistant bark. Consequently, snags and large dead wood accumulations are rare.

Old-growth longleaf pine stands are the preferred habitat of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, Picoides borealis, which nests in cavities that it excavates in the trunks of living pines. The rarity of old-growth stands has led to designation of the woodpecker as endangered, and has thus been the primary driver behind efforts to preserve the remaining old stands and (a much more difficult problem in view of traditional Western cultural biases against wildfire) to restore such stands to a frequent fire regime. In the absence of fire, longleaf stands are doomed by the invasion of understory hardwoods such as turkey oak (Quercus laevis) and blackjack oak (Q. incana). These species produce dense understory shade, preventing the establishment of pine seedlings, and they also compete directly with adult pines for water and nutrients.

Longleaf pine is the state tree of North Carolina (Kral 1993). The state toast is:

Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!

Citations

Earley, Lawrence S. 2004. Looking For Longleaf. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press. 322pp. Highly recommended for its insights to the ecology and ethnobotany of the species, and its historical information, but also because it's an interesting story very well written--a good read, regardless of whether you care about P. palustris (for sale in the Bookstore).

Hyre, Kim and Scott Hartley. 2000. Land of the Longleaf Pine: Weymouth Woods and the Sand Hills. Pp. 156-162 in Frankenberg, Dirk (ed.), Exploring North Carolina's Natural Areas. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.

Varner, J.M. and J.S. Kush. 2004. Remnant old-growth longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) savannas and forests of the southeastern USA: status and threats. Natural Areas Journal 24(2): 141-149. Available: http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/9803 (2008.10.15).

Wireback, Taft. 2007.12.08. UNCG student, professor find 459-year-old longleaf pine. The Charlotte Observer http://www.realcities.com/mld/charlotte/news/18094454.htm, accessed 2007.12.11.