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Pinus palustris
Also called Florida Pine, Georgia Pine, Longleaf Yellow Pine, Pitch Pine, Southern Pine, Southern Yellow Pine, Hard Pine
Longleaf pine is a large, fire-adapted conifer of the southeastern US coastal plain, grown mainly as a landscape or forestry tree rather than a houseplant. The key to growing it is full sun, sandy well-drained soil, and room to grow, as young trees spend years in a low grass stage.
The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is a species of conifer in the family Pinaceae, a pine native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as "yellow pine" or "long leaf yellow pine", although it is properly just one out of a number of species termed yellow pine. It reaches a height of 30–35 m (98–115 ft) and a diameter of 0.7 m (28 in). In the past, before extensive logging, they reportedly grew to 47 m (154 ft) with a diameter of 1.2 m (47 in). The tree is a cultural symbol of the Southern United States, being the official state tree of Alabama. This particular species is one of the eight pine tree species that falls under the "Pine" designation as the state tree of North Carolina.
Longleaf pine is highly pyrophytic (resistant to wildfire) and dependent on fire. Their thick bark and growth habits help to provide a tolerance to fire. Periodic natural wildfire and anthropogenic fires select for this species by removing competition and exposing bare soil for successful germination of seeds. The lack of medium-tall trees (called a midstory canopy) leads to open longleaf pine forests or savannas. New seedlings do not appear at all tree-like and resemble a dark-green fountain of needles. This form is called the grass stage. During this stage, which lasts for 5–12 years, vertical growth is very slow, and the tree may take a number of years simply to grow ankle high. After that, it has a growth spurt, especially if it is in a gap or no tree canopy is above it. In the grass stage, it is very resistant to low intensity fires because the terminal bud is protected from lethal heating by the tightly packed needles.
Vast forests of longleaf pine once were present along the southeastern Atlantic coast and Gulf Coast of North America, forming savannahs and woodlands that covered large portions of the Coastal Plain. These forests were the source of naval stores – resin, turpentine, and timber – needed by merchants and the navy for their ships. They have been cutover since for timber and usually replaced with faster-growing loblolly pine and slash pine, for agriculture, and for development. Due to this deforestation and overharvesting, at its lowest point in the 1990s, only about 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of longleaf pine forest remained: roughly 5% of its original range. Although now replaced across most of its range by loblolly pine plantations, conservation efforts did slightly raise the area of longleaf forest cover to 2.3 million ha (5.6 million ac) by 2023. Despite its decline on the landscape, longleaf pine is available at many nurseries within its range; the southernmost known point of sale is in Lake Worth Beach, Florida.
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 · Sand Pine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Longleaf pine 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.
