Pinus echinata P. Mill. Shortleaf pine, short-leaf pine, rosemary pine, yellow pine. Family Pinaceae. ITIS Taxonomic Serial Number 183335. USDA PLANTS Symbol PIEC2. TROPICOS # 24900188.
Images • Branchlet with needles. • Close-up of needles. • Close-up of buds. • Pollen cones. • Seed cones. • Herbarium sheet 1. • Herbarium sheet 2. • Herbarium sheet 3.
Detailed Description:
Plant habit and life style. Plants Gymnosperms, monoecious, (15–)20–35(–45) m tall.
Stems. Pith continuous. Young twigs (1-year-old or less) green or violet, glabrous or pubescent, stipitate glandular. Twigs (2–4 years old) glabrous or pubescent, scaly. Leaf scars absent, bundle scars absent, stipule scars absent, short shoots present or absent, short shoots bearing leaves. Bark of mature trunks flaky or furrowed or plated.
Buds. Buds axillary or terminal, bud clusters at ends of twigs present or absent, brown or gray or reddish-brown or tan, 5–7(–10) mm long, cylindric or ellipsoid-cylindric or oblong-ovoid or ovoid or ovoid-cylindric, sharp, glabrous or pubescent, ciliate, bud scales imbricate.
Leaves. Leaves evergreen, needle-like, simple, sessile, fascicled, spreading or ascending, needles 2(–3) per cluster or fascicle, (5–)7–11(–13) cm long, 0.1 cm wide, acicular, leaf margins entire or serrulate, leaf apices acute, leaf bases attenuate, leaf cross section three-angled or semicircular. Leaf upper surface blue-green or green or yellow-green, striped, glabrous or glabrate, stipitate glandular. Leaf lower surface blue-green or green or yellow-green, striped, glabrous or glabrate, stipitate glandular. Stipules absent.
Cones. Pollen cones shedding pollen February or March or April, 1.5–1.8(–2) cm long. Seed cone maturation 2 years. Seed cones semi-persistent or not persistent, axillary, nearly sessile or stalked, symmetric, before opening lanceoloid or lance-ovoid, when open conic or globose or oblong-ovoid or ovoid or ovoid-conic, (3–)4–6(–7) cm long, immature seed cones green or rose or salmon, mature seed cones brown or gray or reddish-brown. Seed cone scales woody, armed. Seed cone armature deciduous or persistent, curved or straight, weak. Apophyses keeled.
Habitat. Habitat bottomland forests or disturbed and weedy areas or dry-mesic upland forests or mesic upland forests or mixed forest edges or rock outcrops or suburban plantings.
Special Diagnostic Characters. Needles slightly twisted, or not twisted; buds resinous (or not resinous); bark plates with evident resin pockets; 3–4 year-old twigs rough and flaking.
Cite this publication as: ‘Stephen M. Seiberling, Alan S. Weakley, and Peter S. White (2005 onwards). Common Trees of the North Carolina Piedmont: Identification, Descriptions, Illustrations, and Glossary. Version: March 7, 2006. <http://www.ibiblio.org/openkey/intkey/>’.
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