Pinus taeda

• BOTANICAL NAME: Pinus taeda
• PRONUMCIATION: PI-nus TA-da
• COMMON NAME: Loblolly Pine
• FAMILY: Pinaceae
• NATIVITY: New Jersey south to Florida and West to Oklahoma and Texas. Occurs in piedmont and to a lesser extent in the coastal plain.
• GROWTH HABIT: Pyramidal in youth, developing a high, thin canopy with age.
• SIZE: 40 - 50' in cultivation, to 90" in the wild.
• HARDINESS: Zone 6 - 9.
• CULTURE: Full sun with moist soils. Will grow in sandy soils but prefers moist even poorly drained soils. Tolerant of hot climates.
• SUCCESSIONAL STATUS:  Climax
• FACULTATIVE STATUS:  Facultative
• LANDSCAPE USE: Fast growing pine for southern gardens. Makes an excellent canopy that provides a light shade for understory plantings.
• FOLIAGE: Needles in fascicles of three (occasionally two); 6 - 10" long. Needles stiff and often twisted.
• BUDS: 1/4 - 1/2" long, reddish brown. Scales fringed and reflexed at tips.
• BARK: Scaly and gray with deep fissures.
• FRUIT: Cone 3 - 6" long, approximately 2" wide. Back of scale armed with pronounced prickle.
• PROPAGATION: Seed.
• PESTS: None serious.
• CULTIVARS: