Local pine ID

I've worked in Iroquois Park in Louisville, KY for just about 20 years. I'm used to the occasional Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana) that has been planted there over the 120 years or so that the park has existed, but I hadn't paid attention to what else was blending in amongst them.

Until Wednesday.

As some fellow landscape architects and I were identifying trees within an upcoming construction project area, I realized that more than a few of the pines were NOT like the others. Here are some images showing the distinctly 3-needle bundles, longer needles, and different bark.

I have a hunch as to what this species is, but welcome contributions from conifer connoisseurs.

This would be a good one for non-connoisseurs to take a stab at. I hate to lob out an answer without being certain, but I also don't want to lollygag and have someone else jump in with the answer. Mmm, how long are those needles?

"Lollygag". Ha! Not the one, though.

I didn't measure them, but I'd say they were in the 5" range (12-13 cm) range according to the thumb scale.

Wot no cones? Shame on you!!

I'll go for Loblolly Pine

Resin

Can I Pitch in? How about Pinus rigida? Also might not be native there, and since you said 'local' I haven't looked at exotics. Can you give us a photo of a cone, pretty please?

I'm inclined to think it is Pinus rigida, too - and a well-deserved self-kick in the rump for picking up and inspecting cones without remembering to photo them.

A blast from my learning past: one of the men I consider a mentor back in the late '80s pointed out pines at Bernheim Arboretum that had epicormic sprouts along old trunks, and stated that was the only pine (around these parts) that does that. I believe that is/was Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida). Some of the trees up at Iroquois Park had small sprouts like that.

Of course, you'll have to take my word for it...

Not impossible, but the needles look a mite too long and slender at least for typical P. rigida:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pinus_rigida_cone_Linville.jpg

A cone photo will definitely help.

My second choice after Loblolly (P. taeda) would be Pond Pine (P. serotina); this also produces epicormic shoots, so that increases in the identity stakes. Despite its southeast coastal origins, it is hardier than often thought.

Resin


This message was edited May 10, 2014 9:35 PM

Just as bad as not recording the cone, I've left a gaping hole by not following my own mantra - tell something about where this is growing. Aren't you all supremely familiar with Iroquois Park in Louisville, KY?

Designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. in 1893, Iroquois Park encompasses one of those novel landforms known as a knob - a small remnant hill left after the surrounding area eroded away through weathering of less resistant geology. This property has been mature forest since its acquisition by the city in 1890, and the soils are acidic from parent materials of sandstones and shales.

The pine in question was certainly planted, and its location puts it on the xeric soils on the crest of this knob that harbors such associates as:

•Quercus marilandica - Blackjack Oak
•Quercus montana - Chestnut Oak
•Quercus alba - White Oak
•Quercus velutina - Black Oak
•Carya ovata - Shagbark Hickory
•Carya tomentosa - Mockernut Hickory
•Pinus virginiana - Virginia Pine

Doesn't mean such species as Loblolly Pine or Pond Pine couldn't have been introduced, but I think it would be unlikely that they'd successfully persist in such a dry (and unmanaged) landscape.

Deceptive you. I like it.

Olmsted wasn't above having trees brought in from elsewhere, was he? My memory is hazy, but it seems to me they (gotta give his partner credit) brought in numerous trees from outside the area when developing Central Park.

BTW, P. rigida is hardy into z4, with a mature specimen growing at the Minnesotat Landscape Arb. It displays the epicormic sprouts (good name for a band) you mentioned. It has a shaggy, furry look about it.