Native Plant Database

Chaney, Patsy

Pinus palustris P. Mill.

Longleaf pine, Georgia pine

Pinaceae (Pine Family)

USDA Symbol: PIPA2

USDA Native Status: Native to U.S.

Longleaf pine is an 80-100 ft. tree with short, stout, spare branches forming an open, irregular crown. A new level of branches is added each year. Long, bright green needles, the longest of any eastern North American pine, occur in dense bundles of three. The cones are also the largest of any pine in eastern North America. Mature specimens provide high, airy, fragrant canopies. Seedlings pass through a grass stage for a few years, in which the stem grows in thickness rather than height and the taproot develops rapidly. Later, the elongating, unbranched stem produces very long needles, which give a bunchgrass-like appearance when theyre still close to the ground.

Frequent fires caused by man or by lightning have perpetuated subclimax, pure stands of this species and in the past helped maintain a distinct Southeastern ecosystem known as Longleaf Pine Savannah, which once covered a vast area from eastern Texas to the Atlantic coast in park-like groves of massive specimens, plus associated, fire-adapted plants like Pineland Three-Awn (Aristida stricta). Longleaf Pine is a leading world producer of naval stores. The trees are tapped for turpentine and resin and then logged for construction lumber, poles and pilings, and pulpwood.

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