The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)—named for its 15 inch needles—was once common across the southern United States, forming pine savannas along the coastal plain, among other places. Like other fire adapted pine species, longleaf populations began to decline in the years following European settlement due to fire suppression and timber cutting. Today, however, the longleaf is recognized as an important ecosystem component, and a critical part of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker’s lifecycle. As a result, longleaf pine restoration is a major objective of public forest management in places like Alabama.
The longleaf is a productive tree, often growing to 30 inches in diameter in around 100 years. The one pictured got its start circa 1900 and reached 27 inches before being felled by the recent Tuscaloosa tornado. While a mature longleaf pine looks like other yellow pines—like a ponderosa, for one—the seedlings and saplings are very different.
The seedlings, in fact, do not look like trees at all, but appear grass-like. They grow in this “grass stage” for several years and, despite their apparent fragility, are not killed by the ground fires that kill other seedlings. After a few years, the seedlings shoot up into skinny saplings, often reaching six feet in height before producing spindly branches. At this stage, they look like green pom-poms on a stick—or like Dr. Seuss characters—with their long needles floating around them in a halo.
Longleaf pine currently covers just five percent of its former range. It has been replaced, in many cases, with the somewhat faster growing loblolly and slash pines. Longleaf seedlings are available for planting, however, and you can get 1000 plugs from the Meeks’ Nursery in Kite, Georgia for just $190. At that price, I don’t know how you can afford not to plant them. I wonder if they would grow well in southern Utah?
I worked one summer in LA (that's Lower Alabama) and part of my job was doing 5-year old plantation inventory on longleaf and loblolly stands. I very much preferred working in the longleaf stands over the loblolly stands. In 5-years, loblolly can grow to head height making counting trees difficult because they were planted on 8x8 foot spacing. The longleaf's were easy, they were all still in the grass stage which made it easy to walk the plot boundary and spot the copperheads and cottonmouths.
ReplyDeleteAll I ever hear about in the southeast is snakes, but I never saw so much as a garter snake while I was out there. I'm beginning to wonder if the legendary cottonmouth isn't just that, a legend.
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