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Pinus clausa
Also called Florida Spruce Pine, Scrub Pine, Alabama Pine, Spruce Pine
Pinus clausa, the sand pine, is a small, often shrubby pine of the Pinaceae family native to the Southeastern US, from Florida to coastal Alabama. It thrives in very poor, dry, sandy soil and is best grown in full sun with excellent drainage.
Pinus clausa, the sand pine, Florida spruce pine, or scrub pine, is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae, a pine endemic to the Southeastern United States.
The tree is found in two separate locations, one across central peninsular Florida, and the other along the western Florida panhandle coast into the Alabama coast. There is a range gap of about 200 km (120 mi) between the populations (from the Ochlockonee River to Cedar Key). The sand pines of the Florida peninsula and of the Florida panhandle coast differ enough to be classified into two varieties or races, Pinus clausa var. clausa ("Ocala"), on the peninsula, and P. clausa var. immuginata ("Choctawhatchee"), along the panhandle coast. While most panhandle sand pines (var. immuginata) have non-serotinous, or open, cones, most of the peninsular sand pines (var. clausa) have serotinous, or closed, cones.
Pinus clausa woodlands are an important part of the Florida scrub ecosystem, and provide habitat for songbirds, birds of prey, grey and flying squirrels, as well as the endangered Florida sand skink and Florida scrub jay, among other species. It is one of the few canopy trees able to grow in arid, sandy, and hot locations with minimal care.
Rocky Mountains Bristlecone Pine · Arizona Pine · Chinese White Pine · Mexican White Pine · Jack pine · Turkish Pine · Lacebark Pine · Canary Islands Pine · Caribbean pine · Swiss Pine · Mexican Pinyon · Lodgepole Pine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pinus clausa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
