LOBLOLLY PINE 



{Pinus taeda L.) 



A fast-growing member of the yellow pine group, 

 ■^ loblolly pine is a tree of the Coastal Plain, 

 ranging southward in the United States from Del- 

 aware to Texas. It is variously known locally as 

 shortleaf pine, fox-tail pine and old-field pine. 

 As the last name implies, it seeds up abandoned 

 fields rapidly, particularly in sandy soils where the 



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LOBLOLLY PINB 



Oue-lialf natural size. 



water is close to the surface. It is also frequent in 

 elumps along the borders of swamps and as scat- 

 tered specimens in the swamp hardwood forests. 

 In Georgia, it is found in largest amounts over the 

 lower Piedmont and upper Coastal Plain. 



The bark is dark in color and deeply furrowed, 

 and often attains a thickness of as much as 2 inches 

 on large-sized trees. The leaves, or needles, 6 to 9 

 inches long, are borne three in a cluster, and, in the 

 spring, bright green clumps of them at the ends of 

 branches give a luxuriant appearance to the tree. 

 The fruit is a cone, or burr, about 3 to 5 inches 

 long, which ripens in the autumn of the second year, 

 and, during fall and early winter, sheds many seeds 

 which, by their inch-long wings, are widely dis- 

 tributed by the Avind. 



The resinous wood is coarse-grained, with marked 

 contrast, as in the other yellow pines, between the 

 bands of early and late wood. The wood of second- 

 growth trees has a wide range of uses where dura- 

 bility is not a requisite, such as for building ma- 

 terial, box shooks, barrel staves, basket veneers, 

 pulpwood, lath, mine props, piling and fuel. 



