Wildflower Spot – March 2012 John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society

Virginia Pine grows best on clay and loamy acid- Pinus virginiana ic soils, well-drained, especially on abandoned

By Helen Hamilton, President of the John Clayton Chapter, Virginia and ranges from southern New York to VirginiaVNPS Pine northernfarm fields. Florida This treeand eastoccurs Texas. in every county in

Although once considered a “forest weed” and The Cherokee found medicinal uses for vari- called “Scrub Pine,” Virginia Pine quickly re- ous plant parts and used the needles or gum to forests abandoned and cutover lands and has scent soap. become a principal source of pulpwood and The seeds are an important food source for lumber in the southeast. Commonly a small many small mammals and birds, including or medium-sized tree, a specimen 114 feet tall the Northern Bobwhite. Because older trees has been recorded. Long branches are often contain much softened wood, Virginia Pine offers good nesting sites for woodpeckers. v The lower branches are long persistentdrooping, formingeven when a ragged, dead. flattened crown.

Reddish-brown bark is thin - sures. The needles are in 2’s, toand 3 scaly,inches with long, shallow stiff, twisted, fis dark green, persisting 3-4 years. The cones are some- what prickly, maturing the second year and remaining on the tree for several years after the seeds are released. Greenish male cones are in clusters at the tips of branch- es, while the female cones sit upright on the branches. This tree is wind-pollinated, blooming April through May.

Photo: American Holly (Ilex opaca) taken by Helen Hamilton For more information about native plants visit www.vnps.org.