LOBLOLLY PINE (Pniws factZa L.) 



A fast-growing member of the yellow pine 

 group, loblolly pine is a tree of the Coastal 

 Plain, ranging southward from the southernmost 

 county of Delaware. 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 w^here the 



LOBLOLLY PINE 

 One-half natural size. 



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

 clumps along the borders of swamps and as scat- 

 tered specimens in the swamp hardwood forests. 



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 wind. 



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 pror>«!, piling and fuel. 



