BULLETIN OF THE 



USIPHimOFA«OIM 



No. 244 



Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester, 

 July 21. 1915. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



LIFE HISTORY OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 



By Wilbur R. Mattoon, Forest Examine)'. 



CONTENTS. 



Name and identification 1 



Geographical and economic range 2 



Character of stands 4 



Size, age, and habit 7 



Demands upon soil and climate 13 



Light requirements 14 



Reproduction 18 



Growth 28 



Causes of injury 34 



Yield 39 



NAME AND IDENTIFICATION. 



It is important to distinguish clearly the true shortleaf pine 1 (Pinus 

 echinata Mill.) — variously" known throughout portions of its range as 

 "yellow," "old field/' "rosemary," "two-leaf," "heart," and "spruce" 

 pine — from other so-called shortleaf pines of the Southern States. 

 Confusion occurs because of the custom, more or less generally pre- 

 vailing throughout the South, of distinguishing only two kinds of 

 pine, shortleaf and longleaf . Under this custom, the pine most com- 

 monly included with shortleaf is loblolly pine, 2 slash pine being classed 

 in similar manner as longleaf pine. Shortleaf is most readily dis- 

 tinguished from loblolly pine by means of differences in leaf and 

 cone, described on page 7. Other pines associated with short- 

 leaf are the smaller, crooked-stemmed scrub pine and the northern 

 pitch pine which seldom forms old-field stands and grows both in 

 wetter and colder situations. 



1 Shortleaf pine was first described botanically by Miller in 1768. In 1803, the elder Michaux denned 

 more fully the specific characteristics of the species under the name of Pinus mitts, widely circulated in 

 his work on American forest trees and largely used in botanical literature. The name Pinus echinata, first 

 given to the tree by Miller, was not taken up by any author of note until the publication of Sargent's Silva, 

 Vol. XI, in 1897, and by the accepted rule of priority, this is the correct name of the species. 



2 Pinus taeda, know locally by various names, as "old field," "shortleaf," "swamp," "bull pine," etc. 



Note.— This bulletin gives in detail the life history of shortleaf pine, known under various names through- 

 out the South, where only it is found in commercial quantities. 

 92233°— Bull. 244—15 1 



