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Scientific name: Pinus pungens A.Lambert 1806
Synonyms: -
Common names: Table Mountain pine, Hickory pine, Prickly pine, Mountain pine, Bur pine
Tree to 20(-30) m tall, with trunk to 0.4(-0.8) m in diameter, often crooked and irregular in cross section. Bark thin, reddish brown to dark gray, breaking up into flaky, elongate plates between shallow, dark furrows. Crown flat-topped, irregular, and open, with a few, thick, upwardly angled branches sparsely clothed with foliage. Twigs orange-brown, tough but snapping at their breaking point, rough with the bases of scale leaves, hairless. Buds 6-9 mm long, resinous. Needles in bundles of two (or three), each needle (3-)4-9(-10) cm long, twisted, stiff, and prickly (hence the scientific name, Latin for “piercing”), lasting (2-)3 years, dark green. Individual needles with conspicuous, narrow lines of stomates on both the inner and outer faces, and (0-)2-7(-11) resin canals at the corners, and in between, midway between the needle surface and the two-stranded midvein. Sheath 5-10 mm long, weathering to 4-6 mm and persisting and falling with the bundle. Pollen cones 12-18 mm long, reddish purple. Seed cones (4-)6-8(-10) cm long, plumply egg-shaped, asymmetrical, with 90-140 seed scales, green before maturity, ripening shiny light yellowish brown, opening gradually from the middle over the course of 2-3(-5) years and then persisting another several years (up to about 30!) before falling with the very short stalks (to 1 cm long). Seed scales wedge-shaped, the exposed face horizontally diamond-shaped, protruding as a low pyramid crossed by a sharp ridge topped by a prominent umbo bearing a strong, sharp, upcurved spine (another justification for the scientific name). Seed body 4-6(-7) mm long, the firmly attached wing another (10-)15-22(-30) mm longer.
Appalachian Mountains and adjoining Piedmont of the eastern United States, from central Pennsylvania to northeastern Georgia. As scattered small groves or single trees among oaks and other fire-tolerant hardwoods; (100-)350-1,100(-1,760) m.
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
Pinus pungens is a widespread species that is under some threat from altered forest management that prevents fires and encourages other species more suitable for timber production. However, its occurrence over a wide area (EOO >100,000 km²) and its ecology seem to ensure that it will not become threatened with extinction in the foreseeable future.
Pinus pungens is found in the Appalachian Mountains from the foothills to the crests, it becomes the dominant or single species of pine above 1,300 m a.s.l. in the southern part of its range. It grows on a variety of soils, but is absent from limestone derived substrates. In the surrounding broad-leaved forests it is restricted to outcrops or ridges of exposed rock. Precipitation levels vary from north to south and with altitude between 760 mm and 2,100 mm annually; summers are cool to warm while winters are moderately cold and wet. This pine is a pioneer species, able to take advantage of sudden environmental changes, e.g. disturbance by forest fire; it invades abandoned agricultural fields in many areas. In well-established stands in the mountains it is often mixed with Pinus rigida or Pinus virginiana (at lower altitudes) and the angiosperms Acer rubrum, Nyssa sylvatica, Quercus prinus, Quercus coccinea, Quercus velutina, Castanea dentata, and Oxydendrum arboreum. Several species of Rhododendron, Vaccinium, Gaylussacia, and Kalmia latifolia, Ilex montana and Smilax glauca often form a dense understorey in stands on steep mountain slopes.
Periodically, the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) decimates entire stands of this pine. It is also under some threat from altered forest management that prevents fires and encourages other species more suitable for timber production.
Table Mountain pine is of low value as a timber tree due to small size and 'poor' form, with crooked stems and long branches. Pulpwood and firewood are the only uses commonly cited to have any commercial value. Its worth to society is more of an ecological kind, as protective forest cover on unstable, shallow rocky soils on mountain slopes and as habitat for wildlife. This species is not often seen in cultivation as it does not make a shapely tree; its gnarled form on rocky outcrops in nature can be very picturesque and reminiscent of Chinese or Japanese landscape paintings. It is restricted to botanic gardens and arboreta in Europe and North America.
This species occurs in several protected areas. Forest management that allows fires to burn will be benefiting this species.
Pinus pungens ‘Custer’s Locks’ Pinus pungens ‘Doughton Park’ Pinus pungens ‘Georgia Sunrise’ Pinus pungens ‘Johnny’s Goldstrike’ Pinus pungens ’Last Stand’ Pinus pungens ‘Mountain Gold’
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