Shortleaf Pine

Scientific Name: Pinus echinata. Both the genus Pinus and the epithet, echinata come from Latin, and mean “pine tree” and “spiny” respectively.³

Common Name: Shortleaf Pine. The common name refers to the short length of the needles compared to most eastern North American pines.

Family: Pinaceae (Pine family). This is a large family of conifers, found across most of the Northern Hemisphere. Members of the pine family have needle-like foliage, rather than the scale-like foliage of central Virginia’s other native conifers in the cypress family (Cupressaceae). In addition to pines, spruces, firs, hemlocks, and larches are also in the pine family.

Average Height: 60-100 feet

Description: A large tree with a tall, straight trunk, spreading branches, and needle-like foliage. The bark on young trees is dark gray-brown and furrowed, becoming broad, flat, reddish-brown plates at maturity. Needles are typically a few inches long, straight, dark green, and in bundles of 2 or 3. The cones are small, oval to triangular, and have small spines on the tip of each scale.

Bloom time: Shortleaf Pine produces pollen cones in spring, and the seed-bearing cones ripen in the fall.

Notes: This species is a fire-adapted, highly shade intolerant species, with seedlings unable to survive in more than 30% shade. When you find Pinus echinata growing in a forest, it is very likely the oldest tree there! Its slower growth and inability to thrive in shade or moist conditions have caused it to be replaced by the fast-growing Virginia pine (P. virginiana) and loblolly pine (P. taeda) across much of its range. Virginia pine is similar, but has very short, twisted needles always in pairs, flakier bark, and often abundant dead branches clinging to the trunk. Loblolly has much longer needles in threes and dark gray furrowed bark. It is native to eastern Virginia but is planted extensively statewide for timber and escapes from cultivation.

Range: Widespread in Virginia, found in most of the state at low elevations, but most common in the southern and central Piedmont, becoming less common in the far northern part of the state and in the coastal plain and mountains.⁷ Ranges from Staten Island, New York (one population)⁸ south to Florida and west to Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.¹

Geology/Soil: Found on a wide variety of soils and geologic types. Most common on clays and sandy or silty loams, less abundant on the sandiest sites.⁴ Does well in rocky ground.

Habitat: A keystone species of open, fire-maintained grassland habitats now very rare in Virginia such as Piedmont savannas, woodlands, and barrens. Also found less abundantly in pine-oak forests, oak-hickory forests, old fields, barrens, fencerows, poorly drained hardpan forests, and occasionally in somewhat moister slope forests. Trees growing in shadier, wetter sites are vulnerable to pine beetle infestation.⁵

Flora associations: In Piedmont grasslands, this species occurs alongside post oak (Quercus stellata), hickories (Carya spp.), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), yellow prairie grass (Sorghastrum nutans), goldenrods (Solidago spp.), blazing stars (Liatris spp.) and mountain-mints (Pycnanthemum spp.), among many others. In forested habitats, frequent associates are white oak (Quercus alba), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), chestnut oak (Quercus montana), hickories (Carya spp.), flowering dogwood (Benthamidia florida), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum), and many herbaceous plants.

Fauna associations: Shortleaf pine is a larval host plant for the Eastern pine elfin butterfly (Callophrys niphon). The southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) bores into stressed or unhealthy shortleaf pines, especially in moist, fire-suppressed woodlands and forests. Shortleaf pine savannas and woodlands provide valuable habitat to the brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla), a pine savanna endemic, as well other bird species like the red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), pine warbler (Setophaga pinus), yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), and summer tanager (Piranga rubra).

Human associations: Pinus echinata is a very valuable timber tree, due to its tall, straight growth. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the species’ decline over much of its range as mature shortleaf has been harvested for timber and forests replanted with monocultures of the softer wooded, fast-growing loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) which is a more economically valuable crop. Indigenous people throughout this species’ range have long used its wood as a building material, and for making canoes.²

We want these plants to thrive and for everyone who gets to visit the park to enjoy them, so remember – don’t pick flowers or other parts of the plant!!

1 “2013 BONAP North American Plant Atlas. TaxonMaps.” Bonap.net, bonap.net/Napa/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Pinus. Accessed 29 May 2024.

2 “BRIT – Native American Ethnobotany Database.” Naeb.brit.org, naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=pinus+echinata. Accessed 29 May 2024.

3 “Definition of ECHINATE.” Www.merriam-Webster.com, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/echinate. Accessed 29 May 2024.

4 LeGrand, Harry , et al. “Vascular Plants of North Carolina.” Ncparks.gov, 2019, auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/flora/species_account.php.

5 Masters, Ronald . Fire Ecology and Management of Shortleaf Pine. ag.ok.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/fire_ecology_and_management_of_shortleaf_pine.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2024.

6 “Pinus Echinata – Plant Finder.” Www.missouribotanicalgarden.org, www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=284995.

7 Virginia Botanical Associates. “Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora | Pinus Echinata Miller.” Www.vaplantatlas.org, www.vaplantatlas.org/index.php?do=plant&plant=937&search=Search. Accessed 29 May 2024.

8 Young, Stephen M. “Short-Leaved Pine Guide – New York Natural Heritage Program.” Guides.nynhp.org, 12 Sept. 2012, guides.nynhp.org/shortleaf-pine/. Accessed 29 May 2024.

Definitions:

Conifer: A cone-bearing plant. Typical conifers have needle or scale-like leaves and are evergreen.

Endemic: Restricted to a particular region or habitat.