Pine, Loblolly

This fast-growing “yellow pine” is the most abundant and valuable species in East Texas from Orange county westward to Walker and Waller Counties. The species is also abundant northward to the Oklahoma line. The Loblolly pine also constitutes the pine of the “Lost Pine Region” in the vicinity of Bastrop.

The Loblolly invades abandoned fields rapidly. For this reason it is often called “old field pine”. In the virgin forest of Texas, the Loblolly pine was most common along the banks of streams. It is still the dominant pine on moist sites, but may also be found in relatively dry sites.

The dark-colored BARK is deeply furrowed and often attains a thickness of as much as 2 inches on large-sized trees. The needle-like LEAVES, 6 to 9 inches long, are borne three (occasionally two) in a cluster. In the spring, bright green clumps of needles grow at the end of branches and give the tree a luxurious appearance. The FRUIT, a cone with small sharp prickles, ripens in the autumn of the second year and is 3 to 5 inches long. Many seeds with wings an inch long are shed during the fall and early winter.

The resinous WOOD is coarse-grained. There is marked contrast, as in other yellow pines, between the bands of spring wood and summer wood (growth rings). The wood of second-growth trees has a wide range of uses such as building material, box shooks, barrel staves, basket veneers, pulpwood, lath, mine props, piling, and fuel.