Pinus virginiana description

Typical stand of P. virginiana in Uwharrie National Forest, North Carolina. These trees are about 30 cm dbh [C.J. Earle, 23-Oct-2004].

Sapling, about 130 cm tall, in the above stand [C.J. Earle, 23-Oct-2004].

Open-grown tree along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina [C.J. Earle, 26-Oct-2004].

Cone, Uwharrie National Forest, North Carolina. The prickle length is variable - this cone has rather long prickles, perhaps related to the fact that it grew on a stunted tree on ultramafic soil [C.J. Earle, 23-Oct-2004].

Bark on a tree about 30 cm dbh, Uwharrie National Forest, North Carolina [C.J. Earle, 23-Oct-2004].

Twig and foliage from a tree at Linville Gorge, North Carolina [C.J. Earle, 27-Oct-2004].

Range map, redrawn from (Burns and Honkala 1990).

Pinus virginiana Miller 1768

Common Names

Virginia pine (Kral 1993), scrub pine, Jersey pine.

Taxonomic notes

Description

"Trees to 18 m; trunk to 50 cm diam., straight or contorted to erect or leaning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. Bark gray-brown with irregular, scaly-plated ridges, on upper sections of trunk reddish, scaly. Branches spreading-ascending to spreading-descending; twigs slender, red- or purple-tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown to gray, rough. Buds ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6-1cm, resinous or not resinous; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves 2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3-4 years, 2-8 cm × 1-1.5 mm, strongly twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex narrowly acute; sheath 0.4-1cm, base persistent. Pollen cones ellipsoid-cylindric, 10-20 mm, red-brown or yellow. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 5 years, symmetric, lance-ovoid or lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3-7(8) cm, dull red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1 cm, scales rigid, with strong purple-red or purple-brown border on adaxial surface distally; apophyses slightly thickened, slightly elongate; umbo central, low-pyramidal, with slender, stiff prickle. Seeds compressed-obovoid, oblique apically; body 4-7 mm, pale brown, mottled darker; wing narrow, to 20 mm. 2n=24" (Kral 1993).

Range

USA: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virgina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware at 0-900 m on dry uplands, sterile sandy or shaly barrens, old fields, and lower mountains (Kral 1993). See also Thompson et al. (1999).

Big Tree

Diameter 83 cm, height 31 m, crown spread 15 m, located in Madisonville, KY; also, diameter 74 cm, height 35 m, crown spread 13 m, located in Jefferson County, AL (American Forests 1996). The tallest known one is in Great Smoky Mountains National Park; it is 33.83 m tall (Rucker 2003).

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

The species is weedy and fire successional and often forms large stands (Kral 1993).