Belonging to the Pinaceae family, the Southern Yellow Pine is a pine tree that is native to the south-eastern United States. It is found alongside the coastal plains from east Texas to south Virginia, and also extends into central and northern Florida. The Southern Yellow Pine is often called the Longleaf Yellow Pine, the Longleaf Pine or as the Pitch Pine.

Appearance

This pine tree can reach heights of thirty five meters and usually has a trunk that is twenty eight inches in diameter. The bark of this tree is reddish brown and quite scaly. It has dark green, needle-like leaves that are present in bundles of three. They are usually twisted and quite long, up to eighteen inches in length.

This tree can take at least one hundred years to reach its full size and once it does, it can live a further five hundred years. When they are young they grow a rather long taproot, and by the time they mature they have an extensive, spreading later root system from this tap root that also develops many ‘sinker' roots.

Flowers and fruits

The male and female flowers are in the form of seed cones and they emerge during the growing season before the leaf buds emerge. Pollen cones form in the buds in July, but seed conelets are formed later on in August during a short time period. Pollination generally occurs the spring after these processes. The female seed cone matures twenty months after pollination. They become yellowish brown in colour when mature and they have a tiny but sharp spine that points downwards on the middle of each scale.

This pine tree tends to grow quite well on well drained, sandy soil, and usually in pure stands. It can sometimes occur in clay soil, which happens in northern Alabama. New seedlings actually look nothing like trees and instead look more like a green fountain of small needles. This appearance is present during the grass stage. This stage lasts anywhere form five to twelve years and during it the growth of the tree is very slow. The tree may take a few years to even reach ankle height. After it reaches this height, it has a sudden growth spurt, which is helped along if there is no tree canopy above it that hinders sunlight from reaching it.

Reaction to fire

One of the specialities of this tree is how highly resistant it is to fire. Over and over again, natural wildfire has helped this tree form entire forests or savannas of its own species because while other types of trees are killed, this one survives and takes advantage of the reduced competition for nutrients and sunlight. Even in the grass stage it can withstand fire. It can burn off the tips of the needles, but it cannot reach the bud due to the tightly packed needle bases which protect it.

The yellow wood of the Southern Yellow Pine is used for pulp and lumber. The virgin timber of this tree was used to make boards many years ago. Many salvage businesses now thrive by finding these boards at demolition projects and using them once more to floor upscale homes.