Pitch Pine

(Pinus rigida)

Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida)

Identifying Characters: Within its range Pitch Pine is characterized by needles in bundles of 3, needles shorter than 5 inches in length, and by the nearly sessile and symmetric cones.

Similar Species: Pitch Pine may be distinguished from Loblolly Pine by its shorter needles (3-5 inches in Pitch Pine versus 6 to 9 inches in Loblolly Pine). It may be separated from Red Pine by the bundles of 3 needles, not 2 needles as in Red Pine.Other species occurring within the range of Pitch Pine have needle bundles of 2 needles.

Measurements: Pitch Pine is a relatively small tree and on poor soils can be greatly stunted; height of mature trees between 50 to 60 feet, although sometimes reaching near 100 feet

Cones: Cones are conical and ovate, pointed at the apex, and nearly sessile; length 1 to 3.5 inches with thin, flat cone scales and armed with curved, rigid apical spines; cones very persistent, sometimes for as many as 10 years.

Needles: Needles are in bundles of 3 and the bundle sheaths are not shed after the first year; needles stiff and yellow-green, 3 to 5 inches long.

Bark: Bark of the trunk of mature trees red-brown to yellow-brown, irregularly fissured and divided into broad, flat, connected ridges forming on the surface into thick,dark scales.

Native Range: Pitch Pine grows over a wide geographical range-from central Maine to New York and extreme southeastern Ontario, south to Virginia and southern Ohio, and in the mountains to eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, and western South Carolina. Because it grows mostly on the poorer soils, its distribution is spotty.

In the Northeast, Pitch Pine is most common on the sandy soils of Cape Cod, Long Island, and southeastern New Jersey, and in some sections of sandy or shallow soils in Pennsylvania. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Pitch Pine is primarily found on poor soils such as sandy plains and dry gravel uplands. However the species tolerates a wide variety of habitats.