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| There is one shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) in the arboretum collection. It is approximately 30 years old. In October 1997, two trees were purchased from Coyote Creek Nursery in southeast Louisiana. The following month, they were planted near the Student Union Building. Today, one tree remains. |
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| The shortleaf pine is pictured center. It grows next to
the sidewalk that runs between the Student Union Building and Cline Hall
Dormitory. |
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The thin, flat plates on the trunk have a reddish tint.
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| And here we see the work of the
yellow-bellied sap sucker (Sphyrapicus varius). There is a fairly straight, diagonal line of holes drilled across the trunk. At least the holes aren't actively weeping. |
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| All of the limbs on the west side of the trunk have detached and falled off, presumably because they were heavily shaded by the nearby water oak (Quercus nigra). The remaining lower limbs hang toward the open sidewalk, in full sun. |
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Luckily this tree still has lower branches so that we can examine fresh spring-time twigs. Here we see reproductive activity. Shortleaf pines are monoecious, which means they have both male and female parts on the same tree. In this photo, we see a cluster of the pollen-producing catkins, and they are not open yet.
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| This twig was snipped without the aid of a ladder. |
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| Shortleaf can be identified by the "short" needles that typically come in duos. |
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| These needles measure less than 3 inches. By comparison, our loblolly (Pinus taeda) needles measure 7 inches long, and loblolly pines have three needles per bundle. |
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| Needles were removed so we could examine the catkins. According to Dr. Becky Barlow
at Auburn University, catkins form in the spring while cones develop a
few months later, higher in the tree. Catkins are a yearly product,
while cones take two years to develop. A healthy, mature tree will
therefore have staggered cohorts of pollen and cones. |
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At the current time, the catkins measure less than half an inch long. They will grow larger before releasing pollen.
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USDA NRCS page on Shortleaf Pine
USDA Forest Service Southern Research documentation
NC State University Gardener Page on Shortleaf Pine
The Shortleaf Pine Initiative
