The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Pinus virginiana
Also called Scrub Pine, Jersey Pine, Poverty Pine
Virginia pine is a medium-sized, often scrubby conifer native to the eastern United States, commonly found on poor, dry, well-drained soils. It is a forest and landscape tree, not a houseplant, and it is best grown in full sun on lean ground where it is not overwatered.
Pinus virginiana, the Virginia pine, scrub pine, Jersey pine, or possum pine, is a medium-sized conifer in the family Pinaceae, a pine often found on poorer soils from Long Island in southern New York south through the Appalachian Mountains to western Tennessee and Alabama. The usual size range for this pine is 5.5 to 18 metres. However, it can grow larger under optimum conditions. The trunk can be as large as 20 inches in diameter. This tree prefers a well-drained loam or clay, but will also grow on substandard, sandy soil, where it remains small and stunted. The typical life span is 65 to 90 years.
The short (4–8 cm), yellow-green needles are paired in fascicles and are often twisted. Pinecones are 4–7 cm long and may persist on the tree for many years, often (though not always) releasing their seeds in the second year. In growth habit, some trees may be inclined with twisted trunks.
Pinus virginiana inhabits dry forested areas. The tree occurs in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware. In locations where the P. virginiana lives, rainfall is typically between 890 and 1400 millimeters. The average temperatures in the summer are between 21–24 degrees Celsius and in the winter it is around −4 to 4 degrees Celsius. Pinus virginiana is poorly adapted to fire, but if the tree is larger they are able to survive. Open-growth Virginia pines may begin cone production at only 5 years old. There have been documented cases of trees as young as 18 months beginning to flower. Virginia pine is monecious and some self-pollination is possible, but a significant seed crop requires two trees. Cones take two complete growing seasons to develop. Pollination takes place 13 months after cone formation begins, and dispersal occurs the following autumn. Unlike some other pines, Virginia pine produces cones in all parts of the canopy.
Pinus virginiana was used historically as mine timbers, for railroad ties, and for fuel and tar. Currently, it is being planted in reclamation sites for coal mining operations. Pinus virginiana can also be used for wood pulp, which is used to make paper, and for lumber. The wood weighs 32 pounds (14 kg) per foot.
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 Pinus virginiana 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.
