This is an article I wrote for the April issue of the Inside/Out. The loblolly pines are done ‘flowering,’ but yellow jasmine is still blooming in pinewoods and there is more to see under the pines.

Parkwood under the pines

I used to discount the pinewoods that are so abundant around here as pretty dull and barren, but pines can grow on you. This month the sky will be hazy with clouds of pollen (winged, like the seeds) for about two weeks, much of it probably wafting from loblolly pines. Their glistening needles seem so green in the intensifying sunlight, before the softer greens of hardwoods emerge. There are three or four pines native to Parkwood and another two that aren’t quite native.

The most abundant pine is the loblolly pine, Pinus taeda (taeda refers to torches). Their seeds sprout wherever there is bare, sunny ground, but loblolly probably refers to temporary puddles. Loblollies have relatively long needles, usually three in a fasicle, a bundle of needles that is actually a tiny branch, and rough dark gray and reddish bark. The cones are large and prickly. Most of Parkwood’s pines are still relatively small, but loblollies can grow 115′ tall, five feet across, and live more than 200 years. There used to be some around three feet across behind Racliff Circle, and there are still some very large pines on low ground by the Ball Field and behind Ace Hardware.

Shortleaf pines are common, but their ranks are much fewer than the loblollies. Shortleaf pines usually grow on hills and have short needles, two or three to a sheath, the smallest cones, and smooth brownish bark furrowed into large rectangles. They have small, but spreading dark green parasol-like crowns, reminding me of a Japanese painting, supported by sturdy, angular branches. Unlike loblollies, shortleaf stumps can re-sprout when young. Shortleaf pines can grow up to 150′ tall and 3-4 feet across, and like loblollies are an important timber tree. Their scientific name is P. echinata, probably referring to the hedgehog-like spines on their cones.

There are a few Virginia pines (P. virginiana) around, but they are more common west and north. They are also called scrub pines and often form thickets of small trees, though they can get 60′ tall. The needles come in twos, and curl. The cones are small and cling to branches years after the seeds have all fallen out. Overall they have a bristlely appearance with weathered and broken old branches and flakey brown bark, but their airy branches arch gracefully. There are a few behind Parkwood Elementary’s ballfield.

Pond pines resemble loblollies, but have slightly shorter needles on easily broken twigs and small, round, and not very prickly cones. There might be some around here, but they are more common east. They are called pond pines because they like moist ground and their scientific name, P. serotina, meaning late, probably refers to how the pinecones are held for years. Virginia pines and pond pines aren’t often cut for wood.

North Carolina’s state tree, the longleaf pine, is typical of the Sandhills and might never have grown in Parkwood naturally. They have needles so long they are woven into baskets and saplings have a strange, grasslike form. Longleaf pines are adapted to survive fires, so they form pine savannas when periodic fires are allowed to burn, killing the hardwoods. These majestic pines aren’t limited to wet soil, but P. palustris refers to marshes.

Eastern white pines are common Christmas trees and can last at least several years if planted here, though they are native to the Appalachians and north, where old growth trees grew over 200′ tall. They do grow naturally in one spot nearby, the White Pines Preserve in Chatham County ( triangleland.org/what-we-do/nature-preserves/white-pines-nature-preserve ), where they found shelter on a north-facing slope along the Deep River after the ice ages. White pines have soft bluish needles coming in fives and unusual long thornless cones (and they are called P. strobus, strobus meaning pinecone). The branches form whorls around the trunk. White pines are cut for timber, but are softer than southern yellow pines like loblolly.

Pines are a prominent feature of the landscape because they are among the first trees to grow. Loblollies are the main pioneering pine around here, sometimes with shortleafs, and Virginia pines are first in other places, often on bare clay. These pines can’t stand shade, so if not disturbed by logging or fire, hardwoods eventually take over. Some flowers are common under the sighing and creaking pines. The flowers of yellow jasmine vines bedeck pine forests now. I have often found rare pink ladyslipper orchids shaded by pines [these flower in May], as well as downy rattlesnake plaintain (another orchid), yellow-eyed grass, Pipsissewa, pencil flower, and wild roses. Brown-headed nuthatches, talkative little birds that sound like squeak toys live in pines, as do pine warblers, and birds of prey nest there. On hot, dry days of late summer, the raspy, treefrog like calls of Robinson’s cicadas often resonate out of pines. Around the same time, it becomes hard to walk barefoot under the pines, because squirrels sit in favorite branches to eat green cones like corncobs and rain down thorny scales.

Notices: We met April 13th and our May meeting will be next Monday, the 5th, at the Mediterranean restaurant in the Parkwood Shopping Center, time TBA.

This week we are looking at the umbrella magnolias and pinxterflower azaleas, but see the listserve for those announcements.