Scrub Pine

Pinus virginiana is weedy and fire successional and often forms large stands. It is mostly too small and too profusely branched to be valued except as pulpwood.

Trees to 18m; trunk to 0.5m diam., straight or contorted to erect or leaning; crown irregularly rounded or flattened. Bark gray-brown with irregular, scaly-plated ridges, on upper sections of trunk reddish, scaly. Branches spreading-ascending to spreading-descending; twigs slender, red- or purple-tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown to gray, rough. Buds ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 0.6--1cm, resinous or not resinous; scale margins white-fringed. Leaves 2 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting 3--4 years, 2--8cm ´ 1--1.5mm, strongly twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with inconspicuous stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex narrowly acute; sheath 0.4--1cm, base persistent. Pollen cones ellipsoid-cylindric, 10--20mm, red-brown or yellow. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, persisting to 5 years, symmetric, lance-ovoid or lanceoloid before opening, ovoid when open, 3-- 7(--8)cm, dull red-brown, nearly sessile or on stalks to 1cm, scales rigid, with strong purple-red or purple-brown border on adaxial surface distally; apophyses slightly thickened, slightly elongate; umbo central, low-pyramidal, with slender, stiff prickle. Seeds compressed-obovoid, oblique apically; body 4--7mm, pale brown, mottled darker; wing narrow, to 20mm. 2 n =24.

Trees to 20 m tall; trunk to 0.5 m d.b.h. in native range; bark gray-brown, with irregular, scaly, plated ridges, reddish and scaly toward apex of trunk; crown irregularly rounded or flattened; branchlets red or purple tinged, often glaucous, aging red-brown or gray, slender, rough; winter buds red-brown, ovoid or cylindric, resinous or not, scales white fringed at margin. Needles 2 per bundle, deep to pale yellow-green, strongly twisted, 2-8 cm × 1-1.5 mm, stomatal lines present on all surfaces, inconspicuous, base with persistent sheath 4-10 mm, margin serrulate. Seed cones subsessile or shortly pedunculate (peduncle to 1 cm), dull red-brown, ovoid when open, symmetric, 3-7(-8) cm, maturing in 2 years, then soon shedding seeds. Seed scales with strong purple-red or purple-brown border adaxially distally, rigid; apophyses slightly elongated and thickened; umbo low pyramidal, with a slender, stiff prickle. Seeds pale brown, mottled darker, compressed obovoid, 4-7 mm, apex oblique; wing to 2 cm, narrow.

Dry uplands, sterile sandy or shaly barrens, old fields, and lower mountains; 0--900m; Ala., Del., Ga., Ind., Ky., Md., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Cultivated. Jiangsu (Nanjing Shi), Jiangxi (Lu Shan) [native to E United States]