﻿4 BULLETIN 11, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



on lower slopes loblolly sometimes does. Westward from the eastern 

 edge of the Piedmont, loblolly is gradually displaced by shortleaf 

 and scrub pine, until the western limits of its botanical distribution 

 are reached. (See map, fig. 1.) 



(2) (a) In mixed pine and hardwood stands on lower slopes and 

 on well-drained bottoms. In the original forests loblolly pine is 

 rarely found, even as stray individual trees. The forests of this type 

 are composed of white oak, yellow poplar, red oak, ash, birch, hickory, 

 walnut, and red maple, (b) In mixed pine and hardwood stands on 

 the uplands. The original forest is a mixture of oak, hickory, black 

 gum and pine — usually shortleaf, some scrub, and infrequently lob- 

 lolly, the last as a rule occurring only where the soil is fairly moist. 

 Where loblolly pine occurs in middle Virginia it is usually a tree of 

 secondary importance, although occasionally on old fields it is found 

 to limited extent in pure or nearly pure stands. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF LOBLOLLY PINE. 



SOIL, MOISTURE, AND LIGHT REQUIREMENTS. 



Loblolly pine is not fastidious in its soil requirements, and grows 

 on a great variety of sites. It is in fact adapted to a wider range 

 of soil conditions than any of the pines with which it is associated, 

 though it grows best on deep, moist, well-drained, porous soils. 



The tree depends much more upon soil moisture than upon atmos- 

 pheric moisture, and in fact throughout its range in the United States 

 it is most abundant in regions of lesser precipitation. It grows on 

 soils with all the different degrees of moisture content from wet 

 swamps to dry sandy uplands. It prefers, however, the intermediate 

 flat, moist lands, edges of swamps, and well-drained bottoms, where it 

 is best able to hold its own in competition with other species, and to 

 which virgin stands are almost exclusively confined. Because of its 

 superior reproductive power loblolly has extended itself as second- 

 growth over large areas of comparatively dry upland soils, both 

 heavy and fight, where it was rarely found in the original forest. 



Loblolly pine is intolerant of shade, being intermediate in its light 

 requirements between the less tolerant longleaf and the more tolerant 

 scrub pine. The effects, on different sites, of its light requirements 

 upon reproduction and the development of individual trees and of 

 stands are discussed later. 



FORM AND DEVELOPMENT. 



Under favorable forest conditions, with plenty of overhead light 

 but shaded on the sides, loblolly pine develops, by the time it is 50 to 

 100 years old, a long, straight, cylindrical bole, clear of limbs for 

 from 50 to 75 feet, with a diameter of from 15 to 24 inches breast- 

 high and a height of from 80 to 120 feet. During the period of rapid 



