Pinus rigida
Pinus taeda
pin rigide, pitch pine
loblolly pine
red-brown, deeply and irregularly furrowed, with long, irregularly rectangular, flat, scaly ridges, resin pockets absent.
red-brown, forming square or irregularly rectangular, scaly plates, resin pockets absent.
arching-spreading to ascending, poorly self-pruning; 2-year-old branchlets stout (mostly over 5mm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
spreading-ascending;
twigs moderately slender (to ca. 1cm thick), orangish to yellow-brown, aging darker brown, rough.
ovoid to ovoid-cylindric, red-brown, ca. 1–1.5cm, resinous;
scale margins fringed, apex cuspidate.
lance-cylindric, pale red-brown, 1–1.2(–2)cm, mostly less than 1cm broad, slightly resinous;
scale margins white-fringed, apex acuminate.
3(–5) per fascicle, spreading to ascending, persisting 2–3 years, 5–10(–15)cm × 1–1.5(–2)mm, straight, twisted, deep to pale yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins serrulate, apex abruptly subulate-acuminate;
sheath 0.9–1.2cm, base persistent.
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.
cylindric, ca. 20mm, yellow.
cylindric, 20–40mm, yellow to yellow-brown.
cones maturing in 2 years, shedding seeds soon thereafter or variously serotinous and long-persistent, often clustered, symmetric, conic to ovoid before opening, broadly ovoid with flat or slightly convex base when open, 3–9cm, creamy brown to light red-brown, sessile to short-stalked, base truncate, scales firm, with dark red-brown border on adaxial surface distally;
apophyses slightly raised, rhombic, with strong transverse keels;
umbo central, low-triangular, with slender, downcurved prickle.
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 rigida
Pinus taeda
Pinus rigida often has poor form and is not valued highly as saw timber. It is fire successional, sprouts adventitiously, and is frequently shrubby in the northern part of its range. It is known to hybridize naturally with P. echinata.
(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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