Pinus elliottii description

Range map, redrawn from (3).

Pinus elliottii Engelmann 1880

Common Names

Slash pine, yellow slash pine, swamp pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pinus heterophylla (Elliott) Sudworth, 1893, not K. Koch, 1849; P.taeda Linnaeus var. heterophylla Elliott (2). Two varieties, elliottii and densa .

Description

"Trees to 30 m; trunk to 0.8 m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded or flattened. Bark orange- to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates. Branches spreading to ascending; twigs stout (to ca. 1 cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly. Buds cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5-2 cm; scale margins fringed. Leaves 2 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15-20(23) cm x 1.2-1.5 mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow- to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; sheath 1-2 cm, base persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, 30-40 mm, purplish. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7-)9-18(-20) cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3 cm; apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled; umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle. Seeds ellipsoid, oblique-tipped; body 6-7mm, dark brown; wing to 20mm" (2).

Range

E US. Introduced in subtropical and warm temperate areas worldwide (2). See also (4).

Big Tree

See var. elliottii .

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

(2) Kral in Flora of North America online .

(3) Burns, R.M. and B.H. Honkala. 1990. Silvics of North America, Vol. 1, Conifers. Washington DC: U.S.D.A. Forest Service Agriculture Handbook 654. http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/Table_of_contents.htm .

(4) 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.