Range map, redrawn from (1). |
Pinus virginiana Miller 1768
Common NamesVirginia pine (2), scrub pine, Jersey pine.Taxonomic notesDescription"Trees to 18 m; trunk to 50 cm diam., straight or contorted to erect or leaning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. Bark gray-brown with irregular, scaly-plated ridges, on upper sections of trunk reddish, scaly. Branches spreading-ascending to spreading-descending; twigs slender, red- or purple-tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown to gray, rough. Buds ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6-1cm, resinous or not resinous; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves 2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3-4 years, 2-8 cm × 1-1.5 mm, strongly twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex narrowly acute; sheath 0.4-1cm, base persistent. Pollen cones ellipsoid-cylindric, 10-20 mm, red-brown or yellow. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 5 years, symmetric, lance-ovoid or lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3-7(8) cm, dull red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1 cm, scales rigid, with strong purple-red or purple-brown border on adaxial surface distally; apophyses slightly thickened, slightly elongate; umbo central, low-pyramidal, with slender, stiff prickle. Seeds compressed-obovoid, oblique apically; body 4-7 mm, pale brown, mottled darker; wing narrow, to 20 mm. 2n=24" (2).RangeUSA: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virgina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware at 0-900 m on dry uplands, sterile sandy or shaly barrens, old fields, and lower mountains (2).Big TreeDiameter 83 cm, height 31 m, crown spread 15 m, located in Madisonville, KY; also, diameter 74 cm, height 35 m, crown spread 13 m, located in Jefferson County, AL (3).OldestDendrochronologyEthnobotanyObservationsRemarksThe species is weedy and fire successional and often forms large stands (2).Citations(1) 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.(2) Kral in Flora of North America online. (3) American Forests. 1996. The 1996-1997 National Register of Big Trees. Washington, DC: American Forests. See also: The FEIS database. Anantha M. Prasad and Louis R. Iverson. 1999. A Climate Change Atlas for 80 Forest Tree Species of the Eastern United States. http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/atlas/. Delaware, Ohio: USFS Northeastern Research Station. |
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