Pinus flexilis
Pinus taeda
limber pine, pin blanc de l'ouest
loblolly pine
gray, nearly smooth, cross-checked in age into scaly plates and ridges.
red-brown, forming square or irregularly rectangular, scaly plates, resin pockets absent.
spreading to ascending, often persistent to trunk base;
twigs pale red-brown, puberulous (rarely glabrous), slightly resinous, aging gray, smooth.
spreading-ascending;
twigs moderately slender (to ca. 1cm thick), orangish to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
ovoid, light red-brown, 0.9–1cm, resinous;
lower scales ciliolate along margins.
lance-cylindric, pale red-brown, 1–1.2(–2)cm, mostly less than 1cm broad, slightly resinous;
scale margins white-fringed, apex acuminate.
5 per fascicle, spreading to upcurved and ascending, persisting 5–6 years, 3–7cm × 1–1.5mm, pliant, dark green, abaxial surface with less conspicuous stomatal bands than adaxial surfaces, adaxial surfaces with strong, pale stomatal bands, margins finely serrulate, apex conic-acute to acuminate;
sheath 1–1.5(–2)cm, shed early.
2–3 per fascicle, ascending to spreading, persisting 3 years, (10–)12–18(–23)cm × 1–2mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, deep yellow-green, all surfaces with narrow stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex acute to abruptly conic-subulate;
sheath 1–2.5cm, base persistent.
broadly ellipsoid-cylindric, ca. 15mm, pale red or yellow.
cylindric, 20–40mm, yellow to yellow-brown.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds and falling soon thereafter, spreading, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, cylindro-ovoid when open, 7–15cm, straw-colored, resinous, sessile to short-stalked, apophyses much thickened, strongly cross-keeled, umbo terminal, depressed.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter, not persistent, solitary or in small clusters, nearly terminal, symmetric, lanceoloid before opening, narrowly ovoid when open, 6–12cm, mostly dull yellow-brown, sessile to nearly sessile, scales without dark border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses dull, slightly thickened, variously raised (more so toward cone base), rhombic, strongly transversely keeled;
umbo central, recurved, stoutly pyramidal, tapering to stout-based, sharp prickle.
=24.
=24.
Pinus flexilis
Pinus taeda
Pinus flexilis, much branched with a strongly tapering trunk, is little utilized because of its form and relative inaccessibility. It reportedly forms intermediates with P. strobiformis where the two overlap. The fresh-cut wood has the odor of turpentine.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Originally most races of Pinus taeda were in the lowlands. Following disturbance of the natural vegetation after settlement by Europeans, the species spread to fine-textured, fallow, upland soils, where it now occurs intermixed with P. echinata and P. virginiana. In the Southeast P. taeda is commonly used in plantation forestry, along with P. elliottii and P. echinata. Pinus taeda frequently forms hybrids with P. echinata and P. palustris (P. × sondereggeri H.H. Chapman). Commercially, it is a valuable pulpwood and timber species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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