Pinus serotina (pond pine) description - The Gymnosperm Database

Conservation Status

Pinus serotina

Michx. (1803)

Common names

Pond pine, marsh pine, pocosin pine.

Taxonomic notes

Type not designated. Syn. Pinus rigida subsp. serotina (Michx.) Engelm., P. rigida var. serotina (Michx.) Loudon ex Hoopes. This species belongs to subgenus Pinus, subsection Australes, clade Taeda (Cruz-Nicolás et al. 2024), which is comprised of species all found in the SE US, but occupying different habitats. Phylogenetic relationships between the 6 species in the clade remain unclear. The transcriptome places P. serotina sister to P. rigida (Jin et al. 2021), while nuclear DNA nested one sample within 2 P. rigida samples, while placing a second sample sister to P. taeda in a clade sister to another P. rigida sample (Cruz-Nicolás et al. 2024).

Pinus serotina forms natural hybrids with P. echinata, P. rigida, P. taeda, and P. palustris (all are in the Taeda clade) (Coder 2017). The range boundary with P. rigida is largely latitudinal and the two species are extremely similar in morphology, in the rare ability to form adventitious shoots, and in ecology (Farjon 2010). Moreover, both species show a latitudinal trend of clinal variation in morphology, with a more rapid but still gradational transition at the nominal range boundary between P. rigida and P. serotina, which is coincident with the Delmarva Peninsula and southeastern New Jersey (Smouse and Saylor 1973). These points indicate they are probably sister taxa and could be treated at subspecies rank, but, see Abies magnifica and A. procera, or Pinus flexilis and P. strobiformis, for other examples of similar clinal variation with two different species at the distal endpoints.

Description

Monoecious evergreen trees to 21 m tall and 60 cm dbh, trunk straight or more often crooked; crown made up of spreading, ascending branches; irregular, ragged, and thin, with many tufts of needles sprouting on stems. The trunk, or more often large branches in the crown, may bear adventitious sprouts. Bark red-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into rectangular, flat, scaly plates. Twigs stout, orange- to yellow-orange, frequently glaucous, aging darker. Buds ovoid to narrow-ovoid, red-brown, 10-15(-20) mm, resinous. Leaves, which last 2-4 years, are tufted at twig tips, 3 per fascicle (to 5 in adventitious or disturbed growth), spreading to ascending, persisting 2-3 years, (12-)15-20 cm × 1.3-1.5(-2) mm, slightly twisted, straight, yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex acuminate; sheath 1-2 cm, persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, to 30 mm long, yellow-brown. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, in some populations beginning to shed seeds then but more often variably serotinous, long-persistent, often whorled, symmetric, ovoid to lanceoloid before opening, broad-ovoid to globose when open, 5-8 cm, pale red-brown to creamy brown, sessile or on stalks to 1 cm, scales with a distal dark red-brown border on the adaxial surface; apophyses slightly thickened, low, rhombic, low cross-keeled; umbo central, low-conic, with short, weak prickle, sometimes unarmed. Seeds ellipsoid, oblique at tip, somewhat compressed; body 5-6 mm, pale brown, mottled darker or nearly black; wing to 20 mm. 2n=24 (Kral 1993, Coder 2017). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Also see the Key to the Pines of the Southeastern United States.

The only other pine in the SE US to bear adventitious sprouts is P. rigida, which has shorter, stiff needles. When pond pine has a good stem form it can resemble loblolly pine, but pond pine has resinous buds, 3-4 needles per bundle, a rounded cone, and stem foliage sprouts. Where hybrids occur (usually with P. taeda or P. rigida), they display intermediate cone, foliage, and architecture characteristics (Coder 2017).

Life History

This is the typical serotinous pine, meaning that the seed cones remain closed on the tree for years after they attain maturity. Sometimes they are retained for so long that they become encased in wood. The cones readily open in response to the heat of a fire; mature cones can be opened by exposure to 168°C dry heat for 30 seconds. Seeds also regenerate best upon a mineral substrate; since pond pine grows on very organic-rich soils, moderate- to high-severity fire is almost the only process that can produce a suitable substrate. Seedling growth is typically slow due to the saturated, anoxic soils, with height growth rates on the order of 10 cm/year on such sites. On somewhat more upland sites considerably greater growth rates are possible, but seedlings will typically be outcompeted by resprouting shrubs and by seedlings of upland pines. Trees in wetlands will reach 8 m tall in about 20 years, 15 m tall in 50 years, and 20 m tall in 100 years. Trees over 100 years of age are rare. Trees can produce cones at as young as 4 years but typically attain maximum production at about 40 years; production of viable cones drops after about 60 years. Productive pollen and receptive seed cones appear in late March in Florida and about a month later in North Carolina; this is normally later than associated P. elliottii or P. taeda, which reduces the potential for hybridization. Cones reach maturity in late summer of the second year. As noted, cones are serotinous, but have also been observed to open after a tree has died from a cause other than fire (Fowells 1965, Bramlett 1990).

Vegetative reproduction is rare among conifers, but it can allow a tree to persist long in the absence of stand-destroying disturbance or to endure a variety of types of disturbance. Pond pine is rare in its ability to form adventitious sprouts from the trunk, and is almost unique among pines in its ability to resprout from the remains of a cut or broken trunk (there are rare reports of this ability in some pines, but only pond pine does it routinely). Seedlings or saplings will sprout prolifically if cut or broken, and older trees will sprout vigorously along the stem and branches after intense scorching and defoliation by fire. The sprouts arise from dormant buds that are protected by the bark (Fowells 1965).

Distribution and Ecology

USA: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida & Alabama (Kral 1993); it is clearly most abundant in North Carolina, and a bit less so in South Carolina (Sternitzke and Nelson 1970). Climate is humid with a latitudinal gradient producing a frost-free period of 210-300 days, a January mean temperature of 2-16°C, and a July mean temperature of 24-29°C. Annual precipitation of 1120-1420 mm is distributed throughout the year, but with a summer maximum (Fowells 1965, Bramlett 1990). The soils usually have a dark gray, sandy loam surface soil and a clay-rich subsoil, and are saturated and anoxic (or nearly so) much of the time. The anoxia slows decay of organic material, so soils are high in organics with high acidity. Nitrogen fixation and nitrification proceed very slowly. Soil saturation also deprives roots of the oxygen required for respiration and growth and tends to keep the soil temperature low (Fowells 1965, Bramlett 1990). In Florida, pine flatwoods vegetation with soil pH <4.5 is typically dominated by pond pine while less acidic flatwoods are dominated by P. elliottii or P. palustris (Monk 1965, Monk and Brown 1965).

Distribution data from USGS (1999).

Pond pine grows on the coastal plain at 0-200 m elevation (Kral 1993). It is a dominant tree in wetlands, including floodplains, swamps, brackish marshes, and especially pocosins, a native American word meaning "swamp-on-a-hill"; these are a type of raised bog characteristic of the southern coastal plain. Also, there are shallow, poorly drained depressions called bays. Pond pine is frequently found as the major overstory species in pocosins and bays in association with a heavy understory of shrubby vegetation. Pond pine is shade intolerant and requires fire for successful regeneration, but on upland sites it generally gives way to more fast-growing, more shade-intolerant, equally fire-adapted pines. In the north this usually means Pinus rigida, and in transitional areas between the swamps and the uplands, trees are often hybrids of these two species. The same thing happens with Pinus taeda throughout most of pond pine's range, and it also happens with P. elliottii at the southern limits of its range, although the hybrids are then rare and P. elliottii is even a little more shade-tolerant than P. serotina (Fowells 1965, Bramlett 1990, Harms 1996).

Pond pine is the dominant species in the Pond Pine cover type. Primary associated tree species in this cover type include sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), red maple (Acer rubrum), and loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus). In the pocosins and very wet areas, a diverse community of evergreen shrubs forms a dense understory. Laurel-leaf greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia) is almost always present, switchcane (Arundinaria tecta) is locally abundant; other shrubs include inkberry (Ilex glabra), large gallberry (I. coriacea), zenobia (Zenobia pulverulenta), swamp cyrilla (Cyrilla racemiflora), southern bayberry (Myrica cerifera), sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), and saw-palmetto (Serenoa repens) (Bramlett 1990). Associated conifers include Taxodium distichum, Chamaecyparis thyoides, and at the wetland margins, the pines named above. Where the wetland-upland transitions are abrupt, Pinus palustris may also be found with pond pine.

Weather patterns in the SE US create abundant lightning storms; within the range of pond pine, there are typically 16-32 lightning strikes/km²/year (Vaisala Xweather 2025). The lightning fire season begins in early spring, often peaks in May or June, then tapers off in late summer (Landers 1991). Fires of moderate to high severity are needed for successful regeneration of pond pine, indeed 7 of the other 8 pine species found within the range of pond pine are also fire-dependent (the exception being P. glabra). In the case of pond pine, such fires typically occur at 10-40 year recurrence intervals, and coincide with a period of drought (Wilbur and Christensen 1983, Harms 1996). In contrast, fires in neighboring upland pine forest typically have a much shorter recurrence interval, do not require drought conditions, and are usually of low intensity. To perpetuate pond pine, fires must be severe enough to consume understory shrubs and to consume sufficient soil organic matter to expose a mineral seedbed (Harms 1996). Too frequent firing can eliminate pond pine from an area altogether and produce a grass-sedge bog or savannah (Bramlett 1990). Wells and Whitford (1976) found that fires started by native Americans, and later even more frequently by European settlers, began to change stream-head swamp forests of the southeastern United States into grass-sedge bogs or savannahs. Under burning at least every decade, the native deciduous forest largely disappeared or became dominated by pond pine. With more frequent burning the pines were replaced by fire-resistant shrubs or shrubby trees that sprout from stumps or roots.

A typical stand-perpetuating fire in pond pine habitat is severe enough to burn aboveground shrub vegetation and cause opening of the pine's serotinous cones. Such fires usually also cause enough scorch to largely defoliate the pines, and to cause mortality in some mature pines. Residual pines resprout from epicormic buds and rebuild their canopies within a few years. In rare cases, extremely severe fires may kill many or all of the mature pond pines (Archer 2000 and sources therein).

Pond pine is subject to a variety of pests and pathogens, though none have been implicated in widespread severe mortality. The white rot fungus Phellinus pini is common in the stems of most trees in older pocosin stands. Pond pine is also subject to fusiform rust Cronartium quercuum, which causes stem and branch cankers on pines with alternate stages on oaks. These fungi affect most SE US pines but the severity is variable; for example P. taeda is twice as susceptible to fusiform rust as pond pine (Powers and Langdon 1977). A needle cast fungus (Hypoderma lethale) and a brown-spot fungus (Scirrhia acicola) sometimes cause damage foliage, but severe damage is uncommon. Pond pine is also attacked by the southern pine beetle Dendroctonus frontalis, the black turpentine beetle (D. terebrans), and engraver beetles (Ips spp.). Numerous pests attack cones and seeds and reduce the final seed crop, e.g. Dioryctria spp. and Leptoglossus corculus (Bramlett 1990).

Pond pine in and of itself is not generally important as wildlife habitat, although it is generally recognized as an important cover species for the threatened red-cockaded woodpecker. The woodpecker will nest in older pond pine trees that have been infected with heart rot, which softens the wood and allows red-cockaded woodpeckers to excavate roost and nest cavities (Archer 2000 and sources therein). However, a variety of other southern pines are more important to the woodpeckers; they chiefly require old P. palustris forests. Pond pine, however, is a dominant and potentially a keystone species in a variety of wetland habitats, some of which have been severely degraded by human activities and by conversion to other habitat types; these include bottomland forests, pocosins, and pine flatwoods. Species reliant on bottomlands include a wide variety of over-wintering migrant birds and sensitive mammals such as the marsh rabbit and silver-haired bat (Archer 2000 and sources therein). Likewise, the pocosins provide habitat for varied special-status wildlife and plant species (Richardson 1983, Richardson and Gibbons 1993), and other special-status species use the pine flatwoods habitat. NatureServe (2025) identifies 2 ecosystem groups and another 32 plant association types containing P. serotina as "Vulnerable", "Imperiled", or "Critically Imperiled".

The IUCN has assessed pond pine as of "Least Concern" for conservation due to its abundance within a wide range. However, Harms (1996) notes that old-growth pond pine forests no longer exist, as a result of fire suppression, although they could be reestablished with the use of prescribed fire. And, as noted above, pond pine is a component of two threatened ecosystem groups (Wet-Mesic Longleaf Pine Open Woodland, rated "Imperiled", and Southern Coastal Plain Mixed Evergreen Swamp, rated "Vulnerable"), as well as another 32 ecosystem associations (NatureServe 2025). Thus, while the species remains widespread, the ecosystems that formerly defined its habitat are disappearing. Anthropogenic climate change models indicate relatively limited effects on pond pine, with minor change in habitat suitability and some range expansion into New Jersey. However, it has low potential to adapt to climate change due to drought susceptibility, insect vulnerabilities, and low dispersal capability (USDA 2025).

Remarkable Specimens

The official "champion" trees are co-champions. One is 92 cm dbh, 31.1 m tall, 14 m crown spread, measured in 2017, located in Virginia Beach City, VA. The other is 80 cm dbh, 35.7 m tall, 14 m crown spread, measured in 2021, located in Bladen County, NC (Payne 2025). In 1996, the record tree was 104 cm, height 27 m, crown spread 16 m, located in Thomas County, GA (American Forests 1996). In 1981, it was 94 cm dbh, 29 m tall, with a crown spread of 14 m (Hartman 1982). Thus the 1996 champion holds the record as the largest tree, and the Bladen County tree holds the record as the tallest.

The oldest known specimen is 119 years for a tree on Francis Marion National Forest, SC. This was a ring-counted age from an increment core (Jackson et al. 1979).

Ethnobotany

Aboriginal use of Pinus serotina seems not to have been recorded. However, use of P. rigida has been widely recorded, and as the species have many similarities, may be applicable. It includes use by the Cherokee people for carving, construction, and building canoes; and by the Iroquois for a wide array of medicinal purposes, including internal and external uses for maladies including fleas, boils, rheumatism, and burns. This seems a very incomplete listing. Many different tribes lived within the range of pond pine, and their people likely exploited the resource widely, putting it to the same general uses as other southern pines. These include (Native American Ethnobotany Database 2025):

Wood for fuel, soot to make a black body paint, saplings used to construct pens and similar structures, bark used as a floor covering (as in P. palustris).
Basketry, furniture, adhesives, torches, decoctions used to treat sores and pains (as in P. elliottii).
Infusions and resins ingested as an emetic or laxative and to treat worms (as in P. echinata).
Although not recorded in the range of P. serotina, the pitch of various pines around the world was used for waterproofing and as a sealant, e.g. to make baskets watertight.

There is also little record of early Euro-American use of pond pine. Sargent (1884) said "Wood heavy, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, compact"; in 1898 he added "It is said to furnish now a considerable part of the lumber cut on the coast of North Carolina, where this tree is also tapped for the production of turpentine, and formerly was used for the masts of small vessels" (Sargent 1898). However, he may have mistaken it for one of the other coastal pines, as no one else has reported such uses for the species. It has not grown much more popular in the ensuing century; Plauche et al. (2024) simply say "Pond pine has limited commercial value due to a typically crooked trunk and slow growth. It is opportunistically sold for pulpwood and biomass, but its form is rarely straight enough for sawtimber." The species is hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001), but is almost never used as an ornamental; it is rarely seen in large arboreta and botanical gardens.

Observations

Personally, I have seen it at the Savage Christmas Creek Preserve (Florida), in Francis Marion National Forest and the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge (South Carolina), and in the Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve (North Carolina). All of these areas provide a chance to study the species in a relatively pristine ecosystem.

Remarks

The epithet serotina means "late" and refers to the delayed opening of the cones (Little 1979).

Citations

American Forests 1996. The 1996-1997 National Register of Big Trees. Washington, DC: American Forests.

Archer, Amy J. 2000. Pinus serotina. In: Fire Effects Information System. USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Available: https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/pinser/all.html, accessed 2025.03.31.

Bramlett, David L. 1990. Pond Pine, in Burns and Honkala (1990).

Coder, K. D. 2017. Pinus serotina pond pine. University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources, 4 p.

Cruz-Nicolás, Jorge, Juan Pablo Jaramillo-Correa, and David S. Gernandt. 2024. Stochastic processes and changes in evolutionary rate are associated with diversification in a lineage of tropical hard pines (Pinus). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 192:108011, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108011.

Fowells, H. A., comp. 1965. Silvics of forest trees of the United States. Agriculture Handbook 271. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture. 762 p.

Harms, William R. 1996. An old-growth definition for wet pine forests, woodlands, and savannas. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-2. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 7 p.

Hartman, Kay. 1982. National register of big trees. American Forests 88(4):18-48.

Jackson, J. A., M. R. Lennartz, and R. G. Hooper. 1979. Tree age and cavity initiation by red-cockaded woodpeckers. Journal of Forestry 77:102–103.

Jin, W.-T., D. S. Gernandt, C. Wehenkel, X.-M. Xia, X.-X. Wei, and X.-Q. Wang. 2021. Phylogenomic and ecological analyses reveal the spatiotemporal evolution of global pines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118:e2022302118.

Landers, J. Larry. 1991. Disturbance influences on pine traits in the southeastern United States. Pp. 61-95 in Proceedings, 17th Tall Timbers fire ecology conference; 1989 May 18-21; Tallahassee, FL. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station.

Little Jr., E. L. 1979. Checklist of United States Trees. USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC.

Michaux, A. 1803. Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 205. Available: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7567, accessed 2011.05.21

Monk, Carl D. 1965. Southern mixed hardwood forest of north-central Florida. Ecological Monographs 35:335-354.

Monk, Carl D., and Timothy W. Brown. 1965. Ecological consideration of cypress heads in north-central Florida. American Midland Naturalist 74:126-140.

Native American Ethnobotany Database. 2025. Results of search for the named species of Pinus. Available: http://naeb.brit.org/, accessed 2025.03.16.

NatureServe. 2025. Search for "Pinus serotina" with status G1, G2, or G3 and record type "Ecosystems". https://explorer.natureserve.org/Search, accessed 2025.03.31.

Payne, J. (ed.). 2025. The 2024 Register of National Champion Trees. National Champion Tree Program, https://nationalchampiontree.org/.

Plauche, Audrey C., Gage D. LaPierre, and Michael G. Andreu. 2024. Pinus serotina Michx., Pond Pine. FOR402. https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-FR473-2024.

Powers Jr., H. R., and 0. G. Langdon. 1977. Pond pine clones vary in resistance to Cronartium fusiforme. Plant Disease Reporter 61(11):916-918.

Richardson, Curtis J. 1983. Pocosins: vanishing wastelands or valuable wetlands? Bioscience 33(10):626-633.

Richardson, C. J., and J. W. Gibbons. 1993. Pocosins, Carolina bays, and mountain bogs. Pp. 257-311 in: W. H. Martin, S. G. Boyce, and A. C. Echternacht (eds.), Biodiversity of the southeastern United States: Lowland terrestrial communities. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Sargent, C. S. 1898. The silva of North America: a description of the trees which grow naturally in North America exclusive of Mexico. V. XI. Houghton, Mifflin and company, Boston, New York.

Smouse, P. E., and L. C. Saylor. 1973. Studies of the Pinus rigida-serotina complex I. A study of geographic variation. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 60:174–191.

Sternitzke, H. S., and T. C. Nelson. 1970. The southern pines of the United States. Economic Botany 24:142–150.

[USDA] United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 2025. Climate Change Atlas, pond pine (Pinus serotina). (Forecasts for RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emissions scenario). https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/atlas/tree/131, accessed 2025.03.15.

Vaisala Xweather. 2025. Interactive Global Lightning Density Map. https://interactive-lightning-map.vaisala.com/, accessed 2025.03.29.

Wells, B. W., and L. A. Whitford. 1976. History of stream-head swamp forests, pocosins, and savannahs in the Southeast. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Science Society 92:148-150.

Wilbur, Rebecca B., and Norm Christensen. 1983. Effects of fire on nutrient availability in a North Carolina coastal plain pocosin. American Midland Naturalist 110(1):54-61.