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Pleistocene Refugia for Longleaf and Loblolly Pines

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Longleaf pine (P. palustris Mill.) and loblolly pine (P. taeda L.) are two species that are common to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. The current natural range of the two species is largely overlapping. Loblolly pine occurs in 13 southeastern states. Longleaf pine is the more austral of the two species, occurring further south into peninsular Florida, but not occurring naturally in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland and New Jersey (Critchfield and Little, 1966). The two species are closely related. They sometimes hybridize naturally (Chapman, 1922), and creating the artificial hybrid is not difficult if longleaf pine is the female parent (Snyder and Squillace, 1966).

Citation

Schmidtling, Ronald C.; Hipkins, V.; Carroll, E. 2000. Pleistocene Refugia for Longleaf and Loblolly Pines. Journal of Sustainable Forestry Vol. 10, No. 3/4, 2000, pp. 349-354
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/2122