Solved!!!!!!! Do You Know Your Pines?

[WDH]

How about this one?  Know what it is?

[DanG]

Hmmm.  Looks like a couple of Longleaf cones growing on the meristem of a young Slash pine.  Most unusual.

OR, could that be one of the hybrid pines?

[WDH]

Nope.  Not a hybrid.  Not a longleaf or a slash.  Grows further north.......

[Radar67]

Could it be a Virginia Pine?

Stew

[Sprucegum]

   I don't know Jack  

[WDH]

No, not virginia pine.  Not Jack either, Sprucegum.  Here is another pic with a couple of other clues evident in the pic.  Can you find them?

[sprucebunny]

Table Mountain Pine

( I looked in a book )

[WDH]

Solved by Sprucebunny ...That is what books are for .  Have you ever seen it in the wild?  The second clue in the post shows the mountain in the background.  It only grows at highter elevations.  Here are a couple of other pics.  The first is of a large tree on the mountain top.  Notice the cluster of cones on the branches.  The cones have no stems; they grow right out of the wood.  The large, downward pointing spines are diagnostic of table mountain pine (Pinus pungens).  Funky looking.  Also, the needles are in two's and are short, stout, and twisted.





Good going, SB .

[sprucebunny]

If it grows along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I've seen it.

Two needles, persistant cones and north of north Florida narrowed it down.

The first picture, the cones look like Sand Pine but it doesn't grow N. of FL.

[WDH]

Yes, it grows along the Blue Ridge for sure.  The teeth/spines on the lower third of the cone are very large and point downward.  They look like tongues to me .  Sand pine cones are much smaller and the spines on the cones are small and pointed.

This is a species that most people will never encounter unless they go the the Appalachain mountains.  Hopefully, if you see it now, you will know what it is .