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Virginia Pine

Pinus virginiana

Summary 3

Pinus virginiana (Virginia pine, scrub pine, Jersey pine) is a medium-sized tree, often found on poorer soils from Long Island in southern New York south through the Appalachian Mountains to western Tennessee and Alabama. The usual size range for this pine is 9–18 m, but can grow taller under optimum conditions. The trunk can be as large as 0.5 m diameter. This tree prefers well-drained loam or clay, but will also grow on very poor, sandy...

Damaging agents 4

Heart rot due to Phellinus pini often  is present in stands more than 60 years old, but it is rare in stands less  than 50 years of age. In a severe case, as much as 34 percent of the trees  in a 59-year-old stand were infected (36). Partly because of its  susceptibility to heart rot, pulpwood rotations generally are preferred to  sawtimber rotations in Virginia pine.

    The other serious disease of Virginia pine is pitch canker (Fusarium  moniliforme var. subglutinans), which enters twigs or stems  through small wounds and causes a heavy exudation of pitch. The canker  enlarges rapidly and eventually girdles the twig or stem. Seedlings  infected with pitch canker have a mortality rate of about 90 percent (15).  Some variation in susceptibility to pitch canker appears to have a genetic  basis (2).

    Other diseases usually cause little loss of growth in Virginia pine.  Stem cankers (Atropellis tingens), eastern gall rust (Cronartium  quercuum), a stem rust (C. comptoniae), root rot (Heterobasidion  annosum), and butt rots (Poria subacida, Phaeolus schweinitizii)  occasionally infest Virginia pine.

    The principal forest insects that cause significant damage to Virginia  pine are the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), Ips spp.,  and pine sawflies, the Virginia pine sawfly (Neodiprion pratti  pratti) and the redheaded pine sawfly (N. lecontei). Trees  under stress of lightning, fire, or logging injury are more susceptible to  insect attack than sound healthy trees (39).

    The pales weevil (Hylobius pales), which feeds on and often  kills small seedlings of several pine species, can greatly reduce the  regeneration of Virginia pine. Attacks are most likely on recently cutover  areas where pine roots provide the food needed to build up a large larval  population.

    Girdling by meadow mice can cause considerable damage in young trees. In  Tennessee, they have reportedly caused heavy mortality in 8- or 9-year-old  plantations (26). In Maryland and Iowa, they have shown a strong  preference for Virginia pine over other pine species (39).

    Young Virginia pines are particularly vulnerable to fire because of  their thin bark and their lack of long-lived dormant buds at the base,  along the bole, and in the crown. Fire reduces the Virginia pine component  in stands where this species is mixed with pitch, shortleaf, or loblolly  pines.

    The species also is sensitive to several air pollutants. Of 18 pine  species tested, Virginia pine was most sensitive to ozone; 69 percent of  the seedlings suffered foliar damage. Polluted air containing sulfur  dioxide and oxides of nitrogen also reduced terminal growth, with most  damage occurring between the 4th and 13th weeks after budbreak. Dormant  seedlings are resistant to ozone pollution (14,33).

Flowering and fruiting 5

Virginia pine is monoecious. Pollen  shedding and female cone receptivity begin about the middle of March in  the southern part of the species range, and as late as the latter part of  May in the northern part. Virginia pine is wind pollinated and primarily  outcrossing, though self-fertilization is possible. Fertilization takes  place in early June some 13 months later, when the cones have nearly  reached full size. Seeds become viable by middle to late August of the  year after pollination but are difficult to extract before cone  maturation, which occurs from late September to early November. Unlike  many other pines, Virginia pine produces cones in all parts of the crown.  Empty cones usually persist on the tree for several years and can remain  for as many as 15 years.

Genetics 6

Population Differences    Most of the variation in Virginia pine is attributable to differences  among individual trees or stands rather than to geographic origin, though  it is suspected that populations in the Talladega Mountains of central  Alabama and on the deep sands of the mid-Atlantic Coast are distinct  ecotypes (25). A range-wide sample of 2,114 trees revealed no evidence of  north-south or east-west trends in specific gravity (unextracted wood)  (12). In studies of six wood properties of mature Virginia pine in  Kentucky and Tennessee, variation usually was greater within a stand than  among stands. However, tracheid length increased from south to north  within this region (42). Progeny tests of trees from the same locations  also revealed significant variation in monoterpene content and in stem  volume at age 5. This variation was attributable to difference among  stands and among individual trees within stands (29,34). These and other  progeny tests indicate that tree improvement programs for Virginia pine  can significantly improve the stem form and growth rate.

    Seeds from local sources or from locations with a climate similar to  that of the planting site generally produce trees with the best survival  and growth rates. Seed from southern provenances produce fast-growing  trees on southern sites, but southern trees grow slowly and suffer winter  injury when planted in the north (20,21).

    Hybrids    Hybrids of Virginia pine and Ocala sand pine (Pinus clausa var.  clausa) can be made under controlled conditions with either  species as the seed parent. Controlled crosses of P. virginiana with  jack pine (P. banksiana) and lodgepole pine (P. contorta) have  not been successful (25).

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) jwolf312, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwolf312/2483661103/
  2. (c) Mark Bolin, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/42299627@N03/3900637175
  3. Adapted by Jonathan (JC) Carpenter from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_virginiana
  4. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22777712
  5. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22777705
  6. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22777713

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