Pinus clausa description

Range map, redrawn from (2).

Pinus clausa (Chapman ex Engelmann) Sargent 1884

Common Names

Sand pine (1), spruce pine, scrub pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus inops Aiton var. clausa Chapman ex Engelmann 1877; P.clausa var. immuginata D.B. Ward (1).

Description

"Trees to 21 m; trunk to 0.5 m diam., straight and erect to leaning and crooked, much branched; crown mostly rounded or irregular. Bark gray to gray-brown, furrowed, with narrow, flat, irregular ridges, resin pockets absent, on upper sections of the trunk reddish to red-brown, platy becoming smooth distally. Branches spreading to ascending, poorly self-pruning; twigs slender, violet- to red-brown, rarely glaucous, aging gray, smooth. Buds cylindric, purple-brown, to 1cm; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves 2 per fascicle, spreading-ascending, persisting 2-3 years, (3-)6-9(-10) cm x ca. 1 mm, straight, slightly twisted, dark green, all surfaces with fine, inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex short-conic; sheath 0.3-0.5(-0.7) cm, base persistent. Pollen cones ellipsoid, ca. 10 mm, brownish yellow. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter or often long-serotinous, 4 long-persistent, solitary or whorled, spreading, symmetric (rarely slightly asymmetric, reflexed), lanceoloid before opening, ovoid to broadly ovoid when open, 3-8 cm, red-brown, sessile or on stalks to 1 cm, scales with dark red-brown, purple, or purple-gray border distally on adaxial surface; apophyses thickened, shallowly and angulately raised, transversely rhombic, cross-keeled; umbo central, low-pyramidal, tapering to sharp tip or weak, often deciduous prickle. Seeds obovoid-oblique; body ca. 4 mm, dark brown to nearly black; wing to 17 mm. 2 n =24" (1).

Range

USA: Alabama and Florida, at 0-60 m. Found on sandy soils. Stands typically establish after fire (1). See also (3).

Big Tree

Diameter 70 cm, height 29 m, crown spread 12 m; also diameter 62 cm, height 30 m, crown spread 13 m; both located in Starkey Wilderness Park, FL ( American Forests 1996 ).

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

"Although Pinus clausa is too profusely branched to be important for saw timber, it is managed to produce a high volume of pulpwood in northern peninsular Florida" (1).

Observations

Remarks

Citations

(1) Robert Kral, in Flora of North America online .

(2) Burns & Honkala 1990 .

(3) Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson and Patrick J. Bartlein. 1999. Atlas of Relations Between Climatic Parameters and Distributions of Important Trees and Shrubs in North America. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1650 A&B. URL= http://greenwood.cr.usgs.gov/pub/ppapers/p1650-a/pages/conifers.html , accessed 22-Jan-2000.