Pinus taeda L.
loblolly pine
Medium-sized to large, open tree. Bark lightly to moderately fissured, grey on surface, pinkish beneath; ridges between fissures broad. Shoots greenish or yellowish, glabrous. Buds ± broad-cylindric, not or scarcely resinous; scales reddish brown, free and often spreading, prominently fimbriate. Lvs 3 per fascicle, mostly in terminal tufts, (9)-13-21 cm × 1-1.3 mm, semi-rigid, bright green; resin canals median; sheaths usually 0.5-1 cm long on mature lvs. ♂ strobili 1.5-2 cm long, narrow-cylindric. Conelets sessile or nearly so; scales sharply mucronate. Mature cones ± pendent, deciduous, falling intact, sessile, 7-12 × 5-8 cm when open, ovoid-oblong or almost oblong, brown, dehiscent, symmetric; apophyses ± flattened except for horizontal keel; umbo with recurved spine c. 3-5 mm long. Seed wing oblong-obovoid, c. 2 cm long.
N.: Waitangi State Forest (N. Auckland), Coromandel Peninsula (Bay of Plenty).
S.E. U.S.A. 1957
Logged, burnt and waste land around plantations.
Loblolly pine is cultivated on a small scale for timber in warmer parts of the North Id. Sometimes there is considerable regeneration from planted trees, particularly at Waitangi State Forest. The prickly, dehiscent, symmetric cones, and the needles in fascicles of 3, distinguish it from all other pines described here with the exception of P. ponderosa. In addition to the characters in the key, the more open habit and generally larger cones of P. ponderosa distinguish it from P. taeda.
Also cultivated extensively in the Waitangi State Forest is P. elliottii Engelm., slash pine, which is closely related to P. taeda and also regenerates there but to a lesser extent. Saplings of this sp. and P. taeda cannot be distinguished readily, but mature trees of P. elliottii tend to have at least some needles in fascicles of 2, and unlike P. taeda, the cones are always obviously short-stalked.
