Pinus palustris P. Miller. Subgenus: Pinus. Section: Trifoliae. Subsection: Australes. clade: Elliottii. Longleaf Pine, Southern Pine. Phen: Jan-Apr; Sep-Oct. Hab: Formerly throughout the Coastal Plain, Sandhills, and lower Piedmont, on a wide variety of soils (sandy, loamy, clayey, or peaty), from very dry to very wet conditions, in pine savannas, pine woodlands, and pine forests affected by relatively frequent natural (lightning caused) fires (likely augmented by native Americans), now reduced to an estimated 3% of its former abundance by a variety of forces, including turpentining, timbering, free-range hogs, fire suppression, and ‘site conversion’ by foresters to other trees, now extremely rare in VA and north of the Neuse River in NC, still occurring in some abundance in the outer Coastal Plain from Carteret County, NC south into GA, in the Bladen Lakes area of Bladen and Cumberland counties, and in the Fall-Line Sandhills of Harnett, Hoke, Scotland, Richmond, Moore, Anson, and Montgomery counties, NC and south into GA. Further southward into peninsular FL, this species is more exclusive to sandhill and flatwood habitats, replaced in wetter sites by Pinus elliottii and P. densa and more xeric sites by P. clausa. Dist: A Southeastern Coastal Plain endemic: se. VA south to FL and west to se. TX; it extends slightly into the Piedmont in most states where it occurs, and further into the Piedmont and low mountains in GA and AL. Planted in DE (McAvoy 2023, pers.comm.)
Origin/Endemic status: Endemic
Other Comments: "The species has been heavily exploited for timber and turpentine production, and it has been estimated that by 1930 only ten percent of its original volume of timber remained" (Price 1989); certainly much less now remains (see Noss et al. 1995). Longleaf Pine is featured in the official NC State Toast ("Here’s to the land of the longleaf Pine…") and the highest honor that the Governor of North Carolina can bestow on an individual for service to the state is to appoint him or her to the honorary Order of the Longleaf Pine. A hybrid with P. taeda, P. ×sondereggeri H.H. Chapman, occurs.
Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, C, ETx1, Fl1, FNA2, K1, K3, K4, RAB, S13, SFla, Tx, Va, WH3, Ward (1963); = Pinus australis F.Michx. – F, G, S
Links to other floras: = Pinus palustris - FNA2
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Wetland Indicator Status:
- Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FAC
- Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FAC
- Great Plains: FAC
Heliophily ⓘ: 8
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