Virginia Pine

Virginia Pine     (Scrub Pine, Spruce Pine, Jersey Pine)

Pinus virginiana Mill.

Mature Size: 50 to 80 feet in height, 12 to 14 inches in diameter

Form: Long, horizontal branches, often drooping, forming an open, ragged, flat- topped crown; branch stubs often remain along the trunk for many years after the lower branches die.

Where to Find Them: Various well-drained soils; can tolerate eroded and dry soil.

Needles: Bundles of 2, thick, 11⁄2 to 3 inches long, usually twisted, and yellowish-green

Cones: Egg-shaped, 11⁄2 to 23⁄4 inches long, dark reddish-brown with a sharp spine at the tip of each scale; mature the second year and remain on the tree for several years after seed-fall.

Wildlife use: Small songbirds eat the seeds and may roost in thick stands of young pine. Woodpeckers nest in decayed older trees, and mice and deer browse the young foliage.

Bark:   Reddish-brown, thin, scaly, with shallow fissures