Longleaf Pine

Dark green, shiny, needles up to 15 inches long and large 6- to 10-inch cones distinguish the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) from other southern pines. The clusters of three long needles form circular brushes at the ends of the stout branchlets that grow from the main limbs of these evergreen trees. Older trees have straight one- to two-foot in diameter trunks with branches only at the top third of the tree.

Bigger than the cones from other pines, the 10-inch longleaf cones that are produced after the tree is 20 to 30 years old release large seeds that begin to grow immediately. The young seedlings enter what is called the grass stage when they look like a dense clump of grass, sometimes for as long as 15 years depending on the availability of water and sunlight, all the while resistant to fires they could likely encounter.

As it develops into a young tree, a young longleaf will grow at least five feet high in one year. Its tap root rapidly grows to a depth of up to 10 feet while the relatively fast growing trunk can reach a height of from 100 to 120 feet. They can live for up to 400 years.

Older living longleaf pines are favorite building sites for the nests of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Averaging 20 feet above the ground, the nests become ringed with plentiful amounts of dripping sap, a bother to would-be predators but a boon in earlier days when the trees would be tapped for their gums to make turpentine and other "naval stores." A small population of the rare woodpecker inhabits the refuge.