Pinus elliottii

Engelmann

Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 4: 186, plates 1–3. 1880.

Common names: Slash pine
Endemic
Basionym: Pinus heterophylla (Elliott) Sudworth 1893,
Synonyms: Pinus taeda var. heterophylla Elliott
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 2.

Trees to 30m; trunk to 0.8m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded or flattened. Bark orange- to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates. Branches spreading to ascending; twigs stout (to ca. 1cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly. Buds cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5–2cm; scale margins fringed. Leaves 2 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15–20(–23)cm × 1.2–1.5mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow- to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; sheath 1–2cm, base persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, 30–40mm, purplish. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lance-ovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7–)9–18(–20)cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3cm; apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled; umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle. Seeds ellipsoid, oblique-tipped; body 6–7mm, dark brown; wing to 20mm.

Distribution

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., S.C., introduced in subtropical and warm temperate areas worldwide.

Discussion

Varieties 2 (native only in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Seedlings essentially without grass stage, buds thus scattered on the stem; leaves mostly in 3s, sometimes in 2s on same shoot; resin canals 3-5 per leaf; base of open cone ± truncate. Pinus elliottii var. elliottii
1 Seedlings tending toward a grass stage, buds thus crowded on contracted stems; leaves mostly in 2s, sometimes in 3s on same shoot; resin canals 3-9 per leaf; base of open cone rounded. Pinus elliottii var. densa