Scientific name: Pinus virginiana P.Miller 1768
Synonyms:Pinus inops Aiton, Pinus ruthenica Carrière, Pinus turbinata Bosc ex Loudon
Common names:Virginia pine, Scrub pine, Poverty pine
Description
Tree to 20(-35) m tall, with trunk to 0.5(-1) m. Bark orange-brown and flaky when young, becoming grayish brown and breaking up into scaly, irregular, narrow blocks separated by shallow furrows. Crown becoming rounded, spreading, and irregular with age, with numerous slender, outstretched branches turning up or down at the ends, sparsely clothed with foliage at the tips, and not dropping cleanly after death. Twigs reddish brown or purple-brown, sometimes with a pale waxy coating, hairless and smooth. Buds 0.6-1 mm long, resinous or not, the scales white-fringed. Needles in bundles of two, each needle (2-)4-9(-10) cm long, stiffly outstretched, somewhat twisted, lasting 2-4 years, dull dark green to yellowish green. Individual needles with lines of stomates on both the faces, a two-stranded midvein, and two (or three) resin canals usually buried deep in the leaf tissue near the outer corners. Sheath 3-10 mm, the long, inner scales tattering, the lower scales persisting and falling with the bundle. Pollen cones 10-20 mm long, yellowish brown. Seed cones 3-9 cm long, egg-shaped to conical, symmetrical, with 50-120 seed scales, green before maturity, ripening reddish brown, opening at maturity or remaining tightly closed for years, in either case persisting on the twigs at the end of short stalks to 1 cm long. Seed scales egg-shaped, stiff, with a distinct purple border around the far edge on the inner face, the exposed portion diamond-shaped, crossed side to side by a ridge bearing a diamond-shaped umbo ending in a sharp prickle. Seed body 4-5(-7) mm long, mottled or all dark, the easily detachable wing 15-20 mm long.
Discontinuous in lowlands and foothills of the eastern United States from Long Islands (New York) through southern Ohio to western Tennessee south to Florida. Generally in open, fire-prone sites from sandy flats and dunes and shaley barrens to dry hillsides and old fields; 0-750(-900) m.
Conservation Status
Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern
(Pinus virginiana's very large extent of occurrence and its increase in recent decades on abandoned farmland indicate an assessment of Least Concern)
References
Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland
Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.
Rootstock: Pinus sylvestris
