The Long Leaf Pine

[Tom]

This isn't a "guess what it is" because I feel pretty certain that most of you, with your background, would have no trouble identifying it.  This tree has always interested me.

It is the Ultimate, Southern Yellow Pine, the Long Leaf.

It is the Pine that made "Heart Pine" famous.

It is the Pine that all the loggers in the south went after for timber in the 1800's.

It is the pine that covered most of South Georgia and North Florida in the "Virgin" woods because of It's ability to resist fire.

It was the primary Pine for the collection of Naval Stores.

It is still the sought after tree when a craftsman is wanting the prettiest cabinet wood.



In this Picture/montage is represented the first 5 or 6 years of the seedling.  The little 6 inch grassy 'brush' on the right is the grass stage.  The tree stays in this stage for the first 3-5 years of its life.  That is what makes it so fire resistant because the fires usually pass over the top of it.  During this period it is generating roots.  Unfortunately it is mowed as grass by people who don't recognize it as a tuft of pine needles.

The second and third pictures, to the left, are the tree as it leaves the grass stage.  The tree may be over 5 years old before it looks like this.

Once the stem starts to grow it shoots straight up and keeps its limbs at the very top of the bole,  aggressively pruning itself until it towers above its competitors.  It is said that a Long Leaf will catch up, in height,  with the faster growing Slash pine in ten years.   Its girth is always slim in comparison and, though it grows tall, keeps tight grain because of it.

If you want to see a Southern Lumberman drool, put him in a forest of Long Leaf Pines.

[sprucebunny]

I really like long leaf pine and took a bunch of pics of it recently.

My ode to longleaf





I'll add some more as I find them. Maybe Tom has some pics of sawn wood to add

[Tom]

Here is sprucebunny with some of the long leaf boards we were producing in Bryceville, Fl.


This is the end of a log showing the tight grain and running sap.

[Dana]

Tom, what did you mean "It was the primary pine for the collection of Naval Stores"?

[Tom]

Dana,
Naval Stores is a term referencing the harvesting of Pine Sap for the making of Turpentine, Resin to pack seams (caulking), etc.

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/history/naval_stores.htm

[Tom]

Sawing a long leaf

[Tobacco Plug]

Here's to the land of the longleaf pine
The summer land where the sun doth shine
Where the weak grow strong
And the strong grow great
Here's to down home
The Old North State

Official Toast of North Carolina

[Pullinchips]

Bunny your first fic is not of a LL i beleive.  LL pine has a big white terminal bud. 

Tom you were correct on LL fire RESISTANCE (not proof), but the reason the fire passes over the top is the tightly grouped long needles that insulate the terminal bud from getting to hot as they burn but protect the but.  If the fire stays on one for to long and coocks the bud the trees deas like any other pine.  The needles just do a better job of insulating the but on the LL since it is a fire evolved species.  Fire also aids in the pruning of lower linbs on a LL pine.

But yes LL is  the most bueatiful of the southern pines and the sight of a "well Maintained" stand cant be beat. 

That is correct on the correct sites LL can "catch" up to loblolly or slash and on very Poor sites it will out grow or compete it every time, since it evolved also in poor soils, sandy soils, and is more drought tolerant B/c during that grass stage the tree is sending its tap root down to the water table, instead of growing from the top.  It has a larger tap root compared to the other SYP's.

Love the tree and will always have a special place in my heart.

-Nate

[sprucebunny]

I was thinking that was a flower

[Pullinchips]

The needles are not arranged tightly enough around the bud, but more important an identifying trait about the LL is the large white but which stays white though out the year. I have been around LL during all seasons and do not recall red flowers.  But the needles also do not resemble LL and the fact that the bud is not white i would say that is not a LL.

-Nate

[SwampDonkey]

The only grassy looking pine we have when it's young up here is red pine. It has 5 or 6 inch long needles, paired on short shoots.

Looks like some nice wood Tom and SB sawed up. 

I like tight grained wood also. We get it in black spruce as it grows skinny for a long time, but it does not have deep roots. Fir and white spruce have twice (or more) the diameter at the same age. Mills won't pay any more for tight grained black spruce than they will for white spruce. 

[Tom]

Spruce Bunny's pictures were taken too early to be able to see a white candle.  We don't have any around here even yet.  My passing thought, when I saw the red, was the beginning of a cluster of male cones.  I didn't give it much thought since she has pictures of longleaf and I would almost wager that they are of the same plant.

The Long Leaf along my driveway will get a lot of "duff' accumulating around the growth bud this time of year.  It's as if ants, spiders, or some other insect has built themselves a home of trash and stuck it tight to the sap in the bud.  Some of the "collections" are quite large.  I was afraid, when I first saw it, that the bud was diseased, but there seemed to be no harm done as the weather warmed and the candle developed.

[SwampDonkey]

The way those red things are clustered around the stem, they remind me of male pollen flowers. Male catkins are purplish from start to finish, and red for female conelets before pollination, then turn yellow-green after pollination according to USFS. This is the time of year for flowering in Florida from what I've read.

Long Leaf Southern Yellow Pine - LINK

[sprucebunny]

Tom, I hope you will take a picture of the 'candles' when they appear this year. Thanks for the clear info, Pullinchips.

I had no particular reason to believe that tree was longleaf other than the long needles.    It's not the same plant as the other "tuft".

[Tom]

I've taken several pictures of Long Leaf Candles and will do so again this year if the opportunity arises.  Here is an example.

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=3729.msg49196#msg49196

[Pullinchips]

Even thought the tree does not have the long 2-3" candle, it still will have a white terminal bud it will just be smaller and set farther down in the needles.

-Nate

[DanG]

There is one inescapable fact that I know about those "candles" that pine trees have in the spring.  If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times from the old-timers;  "When the candlesticks come on the pines, the Speckled Trout will move onto the flats, and it's time to go fishing."

[SwampDonkey]

I haven't fished for speck's in years. They used to be so thick in some streams and lakes, that all ya needed was a bare hook. And if ya started out with an artificial fly it was soon destroyed by all the trout boiling like pirahna.

[DanG]

SD, we may, or may not, be talking about 2 different things.  Down here, "Speckled Trout" is the Spotted Seatrout, a popular salt water game and food fish.  I just finished off a sandwich of a speck filet....mmmmmmgood!

There! Now this thread has reached maturity.  It has turned to food!

[SwampDonkey]

We have sea run speckled trout here also. On the north pole you can catch and release them. You can also catch them on other tributaries of the Mirimachi and Restigouche rivers, mostly by special resident crown reserved license. Out west the sea run I believe were steelhead (rainbow) trout. Any rainbow we have in our brooks and rivers are ones that escaped hatcheries and people's fish ponds.

Sea Run Speckies    

The Cains is a tributary of the Mirimachi.