Pinus palustris (longleaf pine) description

Conservation Status

Pinus palustris

Mill. (1768)

Common names

Longleaf pine, longleaf yellow pine, southern yellow pine; ダイオウショウ [Japanese].

Taxonomic notes

Type not designated. Synonymy: None in common use, see POWO for full listing (7 names).

Occurs in subgenus Pinus, subsection Australes Loudon. This subsection is comprised largely of species found in the SE US and Caribbean, and includes most of the pines that co-occur with this species in mixed stands, such as P. echinata, P. elliottii, P. glabra, P. serotina, and P. taeda.

Pinus × sondereggeri H.H.Chapm. ex Sudw. is the natural hybrid of Pinus palustris and P. taeda. See P. taeda for further information on this widespread natural hybrid.

Description

Trees to 47 m tall and 120 cm dbh, typically with a single straight trunk and a clear bole for over 50% of tree height; crown rounded to irregular; usually occurring in stands of uniform age and structure. Bark on mature trees orange-brown with coarse, rectangular, scaly plates. Twigs stout (to 2 cm thick), orange-brown, aging darker brown, rough. Foliage buds ovoid, silvery white, 3-4 cm long; scales narrow, margins fringed. Foliage borne in large globular foliar units near branch ends. Leaves (2)-3 per fascicle, spreading-recurved, persisting 2 years, 20-45 cm x ca. 1.5 mm, slightly twisted, lustrous yellow-green, all surfaces with fine stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; sheath 2-2.5(3) cm, base persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, 3-8 cm, purplish, profusely shedding yellow pollen at maturity. Seed cones maturing in 2 years, quickly shedding seeds and falling, solitary (rarely paired) at tips of twigs in upper crown, symmetric, lanceoloid before opening, ovoid-cylindric when open, 15-25 cm, dull brown, sessile (rarely short-stalked); apophyses dull, slightly thickened, slightly raised, nearly rhombic, strongly cross-keeled; umbo central, broadly triangular, with short, stiff, reflexed prickle. Seeds truncate-obovoid; body ca. 10 mm, pale brown, mottled darker; wing 30-40 mm. 2n=24" (Kral 1993 and pers. obs.). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

USA: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and E Texas at 0-700 m elevation on the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. Typical habitat dry sandy uplands, sandhills, and flatwoods (Kral 1993). There is one area where longleaf also occurs in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, in the neighborhood of the Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge, NE AL & NW GA. Hardy to Zone 8 (cold hardiness limit between -12.1°C and -6.7°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001). See also Thompson et al. (1999).

Distribution data from USGS (1999).

Longleaf formerly occupied a large fraction of this range, but logging, fire suppression and conversion to other, faster-growing species (mostly native pines such as P. elliottii and P. taeda) have greatly reduced its range and impaired ecological function in much of the remaining range, so that by the late 20th century its range was heavily fragmented and there were few places where longleaf could be seen in anything like a pristine state. A 2004 inventory found only 5095 ha of surviving old-growth longleaf pine forest (Varner and Kush 2004). P. palustris is most commonly found in fairly pure stands. The associated understory in the northern portion of its range is typically dominated by Aristida stricta (wiregrass), and this longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem supports a wide variety of plants and animals that, without this ecosystem, are at high risk of extinction (Noss 1989, Varner and Kush 2004). In the southernmost portions of its range, the understory is commonly dominated by Serenoa repens (saw palmetto) along with, again, a large herbaceous flora including a number of rare taxa that depend upon this specialized forest type (Florida Natural Areas Inventory 2025). A similar situation, with yet another understory flora, applies to the longleaf pine ecosystem in the western portion of its range, in Texas (Texas Longleaf Team 2025).

Pinus palustris is adapted to frequent low intensity fire. Relevant adaptations include:

a deep taproot and a definite grass stage, which permit seedlings to lose foliage and yet survive low intensity fires (further discussed below);
profuse production and shedding of needles and ready shedding of lower limbs, which provide a rapid accumulation of fine fuels, sufficient to support ground fires at frequencies as often as 3 years;
an extremely flammable heartwood and sapwood shielded by a relatively fire-resistant bark. Consequently, snags and downed wood burn readily once the bark has loosened, and dead wood does not accumulate in the forest.

The grass stage is an adaptation to low-intensity fire that has developed in P. devoniana, P. elliottii var. densa, P. engelmannii, P. merkusii, P. montezumae, P. palustris, P. pseudostrobus, and P. tropicalis; these represent three different subsections of Pinus. These pines have a juvenile life stage characterized by a height growth inhibition in which the seedling develops secondary foliage but the shoot does not elongate. The plant looks like a bunchgrass. The seedling usually remains in this stage, meanwhile developing a large taproot, and then, especially in response to an increase in available light (such as may be caused by a fire), commences rapid height growth (Mirov 1967). In 1948 Mirov grafted the bud of a grass-stage pine (P. palustris) onto the root of a species that doesn't have a grass stage (P. elliottii subsp. elliottii). The resulting plant continued in the grass stage for another 10 years. Brown (1958) determined that the buds of plants in the grass stage produce no auxin. He was evidently a persistent chap, coauthoring what seems to be the most recent study of the problem, by Nelson et al. (2003). That study suggests that a minimum of 4 to 10 different genes are involved in producing the grass stage, and infers "that the grass stage has evolved through the accumulation of alleles at several loci, each with small effects on various components of first-year height growth." This is consistent with an hypothesis that the grass stage has independently evolved several times over the history of Pinus. It is also consistent with an hypothesis that it has evolved so many times that the genes necessary to trigger it are fairly common in the subgenus, and simply have to increase in frequency for the trait to be expressed.

Old-growth longleaf pine stands are the preferred habitat of the threatened red-cockaded woodpecker, Picoides borealis, which nests in cavities that it excavates in the trunks of living pines. The rarity of old-growth stands led to designation of the woodpecker as endangered, and was a primary driver behind efforts to preserve the remaining old stands and to restore such stands to a frequent fire regime (a much more difficult problem in view of traditional American cultural biases against wildfire). In the absence of fire, longleaf stands are doomed by the invasion of understory hardwoods such as turkey oak (Quercus laevis) and blackjack oak (Q. incana). These species produce dense understory shade, preventing the establishment of pine seedlings, and they also compete directly with adult pines for water and nutrients. All authorities agree that restoration of a frequent low-intensity fire regime is critical to successful reestablishment of longleaf pine communities, and overcoming social and regulatory obstacles to this goal continues to be one of the primary challenges facing those attempting such restoration (Earley 2004, Brockway et al. 2005). These efforts were sufficiently successful that in 2020 the woodpecker's legal status was changed from Endangered to Threatened (USFWS 2025).

When I started this website in about 1990, longleaf pine was one of the most endangered forest ecosystems in the United States, but there was already widespread awareness of the problem and many governments, NGOs and private parties had started programs to address the issue. Writing now (in 2025) I can say that native longleaf stands have been protected throughout the species' range, vast areas on both public and private lands have now been planted with longleaf, and the importance of frequent prescribed fire to maintain healthy forests is generally recognized and widely practiced. Although the IUCN still classified the species as "Endangered" when it was last assessed in 2013, my perception is that it now warrants "Least Concern" designation based on a very large area of occupancy (ca. 1.8 million hectares [Oswalt and Guldin 2021]) with a very large number of independent populations. NatureServe rates the species as "Secure", which is the lowest level of conservation concern. See Oswalt and Guldin (2021) for a detailed account of the species' recovery. This is the only conifer species in the world that has seen a dramatic improvement in its conservation status during the 21st century.

Remarkable Specimens

When last measured in 2017, the largest was a tree 113 cm DBH and 32.0 m tall with a 17.1 m crown spread, located near Aiken, South Carolina (American Forests 2021, accessed 2021.11.05). A tree nearly as large grows in New Zealand on the grounds of the Forest Research Institute in Rotorua: 43 m tall, 104 cm DBH, with an 8 m crown spread (Cadwallader 2019).

In the summer of 2007, a tree at the Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in Southern Pines, North Carolina yielded a 459-year tree-ring core. The tree was found by Jason Ortegren and Paul Knapp of the University of North Carolina (Greensboro), who were developing tree-ring material for paleoclimatic reconstruction (Wireback 2007). It is reasonable to suppose that this still-living tree (last confirmed in 2019) is at least 475 years old.

Ethnobotany

Dozens of different tribes lived within the vast range of longleaf, and we can assume they exploited the resource widely. However, there is not much known of that use, apart from observations made by early Euroamerican settlers. Among those recorded uses include (Croker 1979):

Heartwood used as fuel. Highly combustible with high heat content, when ignited, can be used as candles; the "fatwood" from stumps is still widely collected and sold as a handy and effective firestarter.
Soot mixed with bear oil to make warpoint and other ceremonial body paint.
Small trees used to construct corn cribs, lodges, pens, and similar structures.
Bark used as a floor covering.
Frequent fire kept the forests open and the forest floor vegetated by suitable browse plants, providing great deer habitat; this resource was hunted intensively.
Fires were set to drive deer toward the hunters, and also sometimes during warfare.
Burial rituals used pine pole frames and pine bark.

The needles were still are used for pine needle basketry, notably by the Louisiana Coushatta tribe (Smithsonian Gardens 2025). Besides these uses, it is reasonable to expect that aboriginal peoples used the pines much as all pines are used: as a source of wood for construction and implements, as a source of resins for sealing and waterproofing, and to prepared medicines based primarily upon resins and decoctions of the foliage. Although the seeds are quite large for a pine, I can find no record of their use as a food source.

Euroamerican uses for longleaf include exploitation of the wood, resins, and needles, as well as use in ecological restoration and landscaping.

Exploitation for timber has been ongoing since the late 17th century. The wood, especially when sourced from old trees, has clear, straight wood with few defects (Croker and Boyer 1975). As Coker (1979) notes, "settlers drew on the forest resources to construct their homes, outbuildings, and fences. Trees were cut down and pitsawn into lumber and building logs. Heartwood, virtually immune to decay, made ideal house blocks, sills, and fence posts." The species was widely and intensively used; Andre Michaux, traveling the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida in 1806, estimated that 80% of the homes he saw were built of longleaf. The lumber was also exported, mainly to the West Indies, England and the northern coasts of the U.S. Shipbuilders valued the decay-resistant wood for keels, planking, decking, masts, and spars; and of the course the seams were sealed with longleaf pitch. Still, until after the Civil War, the logging was hard, slow work, and despite high demand for the timber, there seems to have been no serious reduction of the extent of the longleaf forests. That changed with the advent of industrial technology that improved saws, brought the advent of railroad transport (on longleaf ties and trestles), and greatly improved the speed and efficiency of sawmills. Vast amounts of federal land were sold to private land speculators between 1865 and 1900, mostly timberland, and during that period U.S. population more than doubled, creating a great demand for lumber. By 1892 virgin longleaf forests were being harvested at the rate of 7 billion board feet, or about 50 million cubic meters of wood, per year. By 1925 the forest was gone (Earley 2004). What remained was a wasteland, with almost no trees large enough to produce wood, and no areas replanted. Even so, modern techniques of silviculture had started to take root. By 1905 parties such as the U.S. Forest Service and Yale School of Forestry were advocating for science-based forestry to recover and replace the destroyed southern pine forests. Paradoxically, the process was speeded up by the Great Depression, thanks to creation of the Civilian Conservation Service, which created armies of young men entering the forests to plant trees, fence cutover lands from feral pigs, and control wildfire. Ten new national forests were created on cutover land, and others were expanded. The fire exclusion policy was the subject of bitter debate (cf. Arno 2017) but by 1935 was replaced with a policy accepting the importance of prescribed burning in longleaf forests, and with this it became possible to practice effective longleaf silviculture (Croker 1979). There was another problem, though: loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), which today is the most common tree within the range of longleaf pine. Loblolly pine is overall more suitable for plantation forestry, and thus brings greater profits (Pickens n.d.). As a result most of the former range of longleaf came to be converted to loblolly plantations; in fact, in 2024 I drove through the range of longleaf pine from northeast Florida to the northwest corner of Mississippi, in almost continuous loblolly pine plantations. However, those plantations are increasingly confined to private industrial timberland. Since the 1980s landowners have come to realize that longleaf has many advantages over loblolly, including greater value for ecosystem services, biodiversity, game production, less vulnerability to windstorms and pine beetle attacks, good performance on long rotations, and less need for intensive active silviculture (Pickens n.d.). Consequently longleaf has today become the preferred species on many public forestlands and for many non-industrial private landowners who desire more from their forests than just financial return.

Exploitation for resins began early; the first commercial enterprise established in North Carolina was the production of pitch and tar. By the 1770s the technology of tapping pines for their resins and distilling those resins for pitch, tar, and turpentine had been established. Living trees were tapped by removing a section of bark and chopping a cavity near the base of the tree for the "gum" to flow into. Workers came by regularly and dipped the gum into pails, then into barrels for transport to the still (photos at right). Initially the gum was shipped to England for distillation, but by 1830 production was occurring in the U.S., and production gradually expanded until it was occurring throughout most of the range of longleaf pine, and could be performed by small operators. The industry was also integrated with logging; a stand might be tapped for gum for a few years, and then logged. Until 1925 the pine tar and turpentine industry was almost wholly based on longleaf, but thereafter it shifted to slash pine (Pinus elliottii (Croker 1979). Later, particularly since 1960, the industry declined greatly as synthetic materials came to fill almost all the roles of tar, rosin and turpentine; by 1995, domestic production of gum had essentially ceased, amounting to 800 tonnes per year out of a worldwide total of 1.8 million tonnes (Coppen 1995, Richard B. Russell Library 2025). It is still common, in older longleaf forests, to find trees that were scarred for gum production.

The needles of longleaf pine are marketed as "pine straw", which is a popular mulch and ornamental groundcover across much of the southern U.S. Longleaf pine straw dominates the market; other pine needles are evidently too short to be aesthetically pleasing (Frankel 2021). The gathering of pine straw for this use probably dates back to aboriginal times; it's common to use pine straw to dry out a muddy walkway or to stabilize mud in an animal pen. It's not clear when it became a staple item for suburban yard care, but it was well established by the time I first learned of it in 1978 in Southern Pines, NC. Even then there were complaints about pine straw theft and the high price of pine straw, and today (2025) it can be bought at Home Depot or even from Amazon, and its theft is a felony in North Carolina. In 2021 sales of pine straw in the southern U.S. were valued at $200 million (Frankel 2021), and for small landowners, timberland planted in longleaf may be more valuable than an equivalent loblolly plantation if annual pine straw harvest is conducted (Mills and Stiff 2013). Other, less common nontimber products of longleaf include fatwood and baskets made from longleaf needles.

As noted earlier, longleaf pine is used in ecological restoration and landscaping, with restoration actions performed across the range of the species. As noted by NRCS (2020), "In 2005, America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative (ALRI) was formed to support a focused, range-wide restoration approach across public and private lands. ALRI includes USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Forest Service, as well as partners like the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Forest Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Landowners Association, The Conservation Fund, The Longleaf Alliance, and state agencies." In other words, this is a major restoration effort, seeking to restore longleaf as a forest dominant in over 8 million acres of forest within its native range. Efforts to achieve this include tree planting, vegetation management, use of prescribed fire, and technical assistance to private landowners wishing to establish longleaf forests. Longleaf is also a popular ornamental species, widely planted in the southeastern U.S. as an amenity tree. It does well in Zone 8, 9 and 10 areas with a summer-wet or year-round rainfall regime and well-drained acidic soils (ShrubHub 2025).

A variety of dendrochronological studies have been done in the fields of dendroecology (e.g., Pederson et al. 2008), fire history (e.g. Henderson 2006), and other areas of specialization. One intriguing study used oxygen isotope ratios preserved in cellulose to reconstruct hurricane activity in Georgia over a 200-year period (Miller et al. 2006).

Observations

Varner and Kush (2004) provide an inventory with descriptions of known remaining old-growth stands of longleaf pine. Though the source is dated, not much new old-growth has appeared since 2004.

Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve in North Carolina provides an excellent place to see an old-growth longleaf stand, managed for frequent fire and inhabited by red-cockaded woodpeckers. It also hosts the oldest known specimen. Some good field trips are described by Hyre and Hartley (2000).

Stands in the Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge and the Tall Timbers Research Station are managed with a natural fire regime, and thus retain many characteristic features of longleaf-wiregrass ecosystems.

In South Carolina, Francis Marion National Forest provides a chance to see naturally-occurring mixed stands of P. palustris and P. taeda. The area is basically an industrial forest but management respects ecosystem values, so it looks a great deal like an area of naturally regenerated postfire stands. I particularly visited stands along Road FS223.

Longleaf is a major component of the vegetation in a number of Florida natural areas. The Forest Capital Museum State Park just outside Perry has a museum devoted to the early history of longleaf exploitation for timber and resins, including reconstruction of a "cracker" farm with all the buildings constructed of longleaf. The Savage Christmas Creek Preserve east of Orlando provides walks through a forest mosaic that includes considerable Pinus serotina in wetland areas and P. palustris in the adjacent savannah; it isn't old growth but is at least a late mature stand, and a natural fire regime has been restored. The Nature Conservancy's Tiger Creek Preserve has one of the southernmost longleaf stands and is another beautifully restored forest, where longleaf occurs in mixed stands with P. elliottii var. densa. In the Panhandle, there are many excellent pine flatwoods stands in the Apalachicola National Forest and in Blackwater River State Park; at these sites P. palustris mixes with P. elliottii var. elliottii and occasionally with Taxodium distichum and Chamaecyparis thyoides subsp. henryae; and at Torreya State Park it mixes with P. elliottii and two of North America's rarest conifers, Taxus floridana and Torreya taxifolia.

In Alabama, the Mountain Longleaf National Wildlife Refuge preserves old longleaf forest at the southern limits of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The trees are of modest stature but still this is the most mountainous country inhabited by longleaf and it occurs with some novel companions including Pinus echinata and P. virginiana.

In Texas, the best longleaf I know of is at the Nature Conservancy's Sandyland Sanctuary (call ahead, it's frequently closed). It's not a particularly old forest but is managed for ecosystem values and has a natural fire regime, and is extensive enough to spend a full day exploring. The neighboring Big Thicket also has substantial areas of longleaf.

Remarks

The epithet palustris signifies occurrence in wetland areas. It does occur in some wet areas, particularly the pine flatwoods vegetation type, where flooding is a common winter occurrence. Miller (1768) doesn't say much about this species except that it "grows naturally on fwamps in many parts of North America," so he evidently had little information and less that was accurate.

Longleaf pine is the state tree of North Carolina (Kral 1993), and the naval stores industry gave its residents the nickname "tarheels". The state toast is:

Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here's to "Down Home," the Old North State!

Longleaf gave its name to a variety of towns, among them Long Leaf, LA and towns named Pineville in LA and NC.

Citations

Arno, Stephen F. 2017. Slow awakening: ecology’s role in shaping forest fire policy. Forest History Today, Fall 2017, pp. 14–21.

Brockway, Dales G., Kenneth W. Outcalt, Donald J. Tomczak, and Everett E. Johnson. 2005. Restoration of Longleaf Pine Ecosystems. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-83. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 34 p. Available: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/20672, accessed 2007.12.11.

Brown, Claud L. 1958. Studies in the auxin physiology of longleaf pine seedlings. Pp. 511-525 in K. V. Thimann (ed.), The Physiology of Forest Trees. New York: The Ronald Press.

Cadwallader, Brad. 2019.05.29. Post in Facebook group "Big Tree Hunters" at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1554361428214432/permalink/2300100576973843/, accessed 2019.05.29.

Chapman, H.H. 1922. A new hybrid pine. Journal of Forestry 20:729-734.

Coppen, J. J. W. 1995. Gum Naval Stores: Turpentine and Rosin from Pine Resin. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available: , accessed 2025.03.05. Good review of the sources and uses of "gum".

Croker Jr., Thomas C. 1979. The longleaf pine story. Journal of Forest History, January, pp. 32-43.

Croker Jr., Thomas C.; Boyer, William D. 1975. Regenerating longleaf pine naturally. Res. Pap. SO-105. New Orleans, LA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station. 21 p.

Earley, Lawrence S. 2004. Looking For Longleaf. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press. 322pp. Highly recommended for its insights to the ecology and ethnobotany of the species, and its historical information, but also because it's an interesting story very well written--a good read, regardless of whether you care about P. palustris (for sale in the Bookstore).

Florida Natural Areas Inventory. 2025. Florida Longleaf Pine Database. https://www.fnai.org/species-communities/florida-longleaf, accessed 2025.03.04.

Frankel, Todd C. 2021.03.31. The ‘brown gold’ that falls from pine trees in North Carolina. The Washington Post, available https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/31/pine-needle-mulch-north-carolina/, accessed 2025.03.05.

Henderson, J.P. 2006. Dendroclimatological analysis and fire history of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) in the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Hyre, Kim and Scott Hartley. 2000. Land of the Longleaf Pine: Weymouth Woods and the Sand Hills. Pp. 156-162 in Frankenberg, Dirk (ed.), Exploring North Carolina's Natural Areas. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.

Miller, D.L., C.I. Mora, H.D. Grissino-Mayer, C.J. Mock, M.E. Uhle, and Z. Sharp. 2006. Tree-ring isotope records of tropical cyclone activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(39):14294-14297.

Miller, P. 1768. The Gardener's Dictionary, ed. 8. London. Pinus no. 14. Available: botanicus.org/title/b12066618, accessed 2011.05.20.

Mills, S. D. and C. T. Stiff. 2013. Financial performance of loblolly and longleaf pine plantations. Pp. 183-191 in Guldin, J. M. (ed.), Proceedings of the 15th biennial southern silvicultural research conference. General Technical Report SRS-GTR-175, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Asheville, NC.

Nelson, C. D., C. Weng, T. L. Kubislak, M. Stine, and C. L. Brown. 2003. On the number of genes controlling the grass stage in longleaf pine. Journal of Heredity 94(5):392-398.

Noss, R.F. 1989. Longleaf pine and wiregrass: keystone components of an endangered ecosystem. Natural Areas Journal 9(4): 211-213.

NRCS. 2020. Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration FY 20-24 Implementation Strategy. Available: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/NRCS_Longleaf_Pine_Strategy_March_25_2020%20%281%29.pdf, accessed 2025.03.05.

Oswalt, C., and J. M. Guldin. 2021. Status of longleaf pine in the South: an FIA update. 25 p. Available: https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/gtr_srs2021.pdf, accessed 2025.03.04.

Pederson, N., J.M. Varner, and B.J. Palik. 2008. Canopy disturbance and tree recruitment over two centuries in a managed longleaf pine landscape. Forest Ecology and Management 254:85-95.

Pickens, Bill. [no date]. Loblolly or Longleaf Pine? (PowerPoint presentation, North Carolina Forest Service.) https://www.nclongleaf.org/pdfs/Loblolly_or_Longleaf_Pine_Pickens.pdf, accessed 2025.03.05.

Smithsonian Gardens. 2025. Pinus palustris. http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ax7523de7f5-9991-4336-8176-a0b99c0a56e1, accessed 2025.03.04.

Richard B. Russell Library. 2025. American Turpentine Farmers Association Minute Books: History. https://sclfind.libs.uga.edu/atfa/history/index.html, accessed 2025.03.05.

ShrubHub. 2025. Longleaf pine tree. https://www.shrubhub.com/Shop-Plants/Pine-Trees/Longleaf-Pine-Tree/15057.

Texas Longleaf Team. 2025. Longleaf Pine Ecosystem. https://txlongleaf.org/longleaf-pine-in-east-texas/longleaf-pine-ecosystem/, accessed 2025.03.04.

USFWS. 2025. Red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis). https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/7614, accessed 2025.03.05.

Varner, J.M. and J.S. Kush. 2004. Remnant old-growth longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) savannas and forests of the southeastern USA: status and threats. Natural Areas Journal 24(2): 141-149. Available: http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/9803 (2008.10.15).

Wireback, Taft. 2007.12.08. UNCG student, professor find 459-year-old longleaf pine. The Charlotte Observer http://www.realcities.com/mld/charlotte/news/18094454.htm, accessed 2007.12.11.